US says Netanyahu’s Philadelphi statements complicating talks, slams ministers speaking out against deal

The Biden administration says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated declarations that Israel plans to indefinitely remain in the Philadelphi Corridor have complicated the ongoing hostage negotiations.

“I’ve never been involved in a negotiation where every day there’s a public statement about the details of negotiation. It makes it difficult. The less that is said about particular issues, the better,” says a senior administration official in a briefing with reporters.

“Staking out concrete positions in the middle of negotiations isn’t always particularly helpful,” the top US official says in what appears to be one of the first criticisms of Netanyahu’s comments regarding the Philadelphi Corridor. To date, US officials had avoided commenting more directly on the prime minister’s comments.

The senior US official goes on to criticize certain Israeli ministers who have claimed that the “deal being negotiated somehow sacrifices Israel’s security.”

“That is just fundamentally, totally untrue. We have taken account of Israel’s security concerns in this negotiation, and if anything, not getting into this deal is more of a threat to Israel’s long-term security than actually concluding the deal and that includes the issue of the Philadelphi corridor,” the senior administration official asserts.

The official doesn’t identify the Israeli ministers, but he appears to be referring to far-right cabinet members Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who have vowed to oppose and bring down the government if the framework laid out by the US in May is advanced.