From the Liveblog of
Saturday, January 18, 2025
PM claims number of troops along Philadelphi Route to increase despite deal stating otherwise
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he stood firm on three issues throughout US and Qatar-brokered negotiations for a ceasefire.
First, he says, Israel maintains the “right to return to fighting if needed” with US support.
For months, he says, “Hamas demanded that we commit in advance to ending the war as a condition for Hamas to even enter the framework on freeing hostages. It made all manner of additional dictates.” He says he rejected them all, and prevailed.
Secondly, he says, he demanded a significant increase in the number of live hostages returning in the first stage of the deal. “Our insistence on this bore fruit: [In negotiations since May] we almost doubled the number of living hostages who are to be released in the first phase.”
And thirdly, he says he insisted on maintaining a presence in the Philadelphi Route along the Gaza-Egypt border. Netanyahu says Israel will not decrease the number of troops in the Philadelphi Corridor but will increase them during the first stage. This appears to contradict the terms of the deal, which say that Israel “will gradually reduce the forces in the corridor area during stage 1” and complete its withdrawal from the corridor by the 50th day.
“Our forces will be deployed inside the strip and will secure it from all sides. This will prevent weaponry being smuggled in and hostages being smuggled out, he says.
He also says that convicted Palestinian murderers freed from Israeli prisons will not be released to the West Bank, but will go either to Gaza or to elsewhere overseas. Prisoners serving serious time for terror convictions who weren’t found guilty of murder will be released to the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
He says the deal was enabled because of Israel’s successes in the multifront war, in which the entire Iranian axis has been hurt, and Hamas has been isolated. “We have changed the face of the Middle East,” he claims. “Hamas is today agreeing to what it did not agree to in the past.”
“The campaign is not yet over. A long challenging journey is ahead,” he concludes.
