PM said to warn: If Hamas insists on full Israeli withdrawal from Philadelphi, there’ll be no deal

Offering more details of today’s meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s hostage-ceasefire negotiators, Channel 12 says Netanyahu has not budged on his demand for an ongoing Israeli presence at the Philadelphi Corridor even after the Wednesday-Thursday Doha summit. He did not shift even after the negotiators told him “It’s either Philadelphi or a deal,” Channel 12 says.

In fact, the TV report goes on, Netanyahu told Israel’s negotiators that if Hamas does not withdraw its demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, there will indeed be no deal.

The negotiators told Netanyahu that they had managed to bring the US mediators closer to Israel’s positions and demands on most issues, including such crucial matters as how many living hostages would be released in the first phase of the deal and the mechanism regarding the Palestinian security prisoners who would go free.

But they reportedly told the prime minister that “they are certain” that the issue of an ongoing IDF presence on the Philadelphi Corridor is “a deal-breaker.” They told Netanyahu that the US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators regard Israel’s demand for an ongoing presence at the Gaza-Egypt border as indicating that the prime minister is not truly interested in a deal, and that they are not prepared to press Hamas with full force to accept it.

Compromise is needed, the negotiators reportedly told the prime minister. And they stressed that there are “security solutions” that would allow an IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor.

Netanyahu reportedly told them in response that Philadelphi is not merely a security issue. It is a strategic issue, he reportedly said, since a temporary withdrawal can become permanent. Israel, he reportedly said, needs to control all the border crossings, and access to the Gaza Strip from all directions, as a matter of strategic importance.

The negotiators reportedly insisted that, if so, there would be no deal, and that they have nothing to work with.

Netanyahu then said he was prepared to discuss how the troops would be deployed, but not to compromise on the fundamental imperative for them to be present. If Hamas continues to insist on a full IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, there will be no deal, Netanyahu reportedly said.

It is with that message that he is sending Israel’s negotiators to Cairo for more talks, the report says.

It adds, however, that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be meeting Netanyahu on the core issues of the deal tomorrow, and says that efforts are nonetheless ongoing right now with the Egyptians to see if there is some potential for flexibility.