Netanyahu’s office denies report Israel open to pullout from Gaza-Egypt border
PMO insists IDF will remain on Philadelphi Corridor, after Reuters cites Egyptian sources that say installing surveillance equipment to prevent smuggling would lead to IDF withdrawal
The Prime Minister’s Office cast as “complete fake news” a Friday report from Reuters that Israel is considering the option of withdrawing from the Gaza-Egypt border as part of a potential ceasefire deal.
The news agency report, which cited two Egyptian sources and a third source familiar with the matter, said Israeli negotiators are discussing installing a high-tech electronic surveillance system in the so-called Philadelphi Corridor instead.
The report came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a new demand that Israel remain in control of the key frontier in any deal.
“The prime minister insists that Israel remain in the Philadelphi Corridor,” the PMO statement said. “This is what he has ordered the negotiation team, clarified this week to US representatives and updated the [security] cabinet yesterday.”
Despite the PMO denial, two officials involved in the hostage talks told The Times of Israel that Israeli negotiators have in fact been discussing the possibility of an IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor as part of the ceasefire deal.
The withdrawal would be part of an arrangement that would see Egypt, with the help of the US and other international partners, bolster the border to ensure that Hamas cannot smuggle weapons into Gaza from Sinai, the officials said.
The arrangement would include the construction of an underground wall along the corridor to neutralize the tunnel threat, they added.
The question of whether IDF forces remain on the border is one of the issues blocking a potential hostage-and-ceasefire deal because both the Palestinian terror group Hamas and Egypt, a mediator in the talks, are opposed to Israel keeping its forces there.
Israel is worried that if its troops leave the border zone Hamas’s armed wing could smuggle weapons and supplies from Egypt into Gaza via tunnels that would allow it to re-arm and again threaten Israel.
A surveillance system, assuming the parties to the negotiations agree on the details, could smooth the path to agreeing on a ceasefire — though numerous other stumbling blocks remain.
Discussions around a surveillance system on the border have been reported before, but Reuters reported for the first time on Friday that Israel is engaging in the discussions as part of the current round of talks, with a view to pulling back forces from the border area.
The source familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the discussions were about “basically sensors that would be built on the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi (corridor).”
“The idea is obviously to detect tunnels, to detect any other ways that they’d be trying to smuggle weapons or people into Gaza. Obviously, this would be a significant element in a hostage agreement.”
Asked if this would be significant for a ceasefire deal because it would mean Israeli soldiers would not have to be on the Philadelphi Corridor, the source said: “Correct.”
The two Egyptian security sources, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israeli negotiators had discussed a high-tech surveillance system.
Egypt was not opposed to that, if it was supported and paid for by the United States, according to the two Egyptian sources. They said Egypt would not agree to anything that would change border arrangements between Israel and Egypt set out in a prior peace treaty.
The Axios news site on Thursday reported that Israel is seeking access to security cameras and sensors that would be installed along the border. The report, citing two unnamed Israeli officials, also said that Egypt has agreed to build an underground wall along the border to block potential tunneling, which would be funded by the US. That report noted it was not clear how the proposed measures would fit in with Netanyahu’s demands.
At a military event on Thursday, Netanyahu said he could only agree to a deal that preserved Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border, but he did not spell out if that meant having troops physically present there.
Any deal must prevent weapons from being smuggled into Gaza from Egypt, “primarily by means of Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing,” he said, adding the references to the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah a day after Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had offered leeway as regards the Gaza-Egypt border area.
Talks are underway in Qatar and Egypt on a deal, backed by Washington, that would allow a pause in the fighting in Gaza, now in its tenth month, and the release of hostages held by Hamas.
The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air, and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Israel responded with a military offensive to destroy Hamas, topple its Gaza regime and free the hostages.
Israeli officials have said during the war that Hamas used tunnels running under the border into Egypt’s Sinai region to smuggle arms. Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling. However, after capturing the border area, the IDF said it found 20 tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border. It subsequently released footage of the tunnels.
Israel’s advance into southern Gaza’s Rafah area in early May led to the closure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza and a sharp reduction in the amount of international aid entering the Palestinian territory.
Egypt says it wants aid deliveries to Gaza to resume, but that a Palestinian presence should be restored at the Rafah crossing for it to reopen. Israel has demanded control over the crossing to prevent Hamas from re-arming.
Lebanon’s Al Akhbar daily reported Friday that negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire had seen progress on reopening the Rafah Border Crossing.
Egypt and Palestinians will run the key passageway, according to the reported non-final understanding, though with Israeli presence.
The report said that in the first stage, sick Gazans will be allowed to leave the Strip for medical treatment.
