‘Philadelphi is becoming Rafah’: Negotiators lament politicization of ceasefire term
Officials say Netanyahu is making a campaign out of controlling border corridor, goading Egypt and complicating hostage talks, as he did with IDF incursion into southern Gaza city
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
WASHINGTON — Negotiators fear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Egyptian government have inflated the importance of control over the Philadelphi Corridor, hampering efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, three officials familiar with the talks told The Times of Israel this week.
The IDF took over the nine-mile stretch along the Egypt-Gaza border in May. In July, Netanyahu began insisting that Israeli forces remain in the corridor indefinitely, arguing that it is necessary for preventing the continued smuggling of weapons via tunnels to Hamas.
The new demand has been a nonstarter for the terror group but also for Egypt, which has served as one of the mediators along with the US and Qatar.
The Biden administration sought to advance a series of alternative solutions, including the building of an underground wall along the border to prevent smuggling, a US official and a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel.
These proposals weren’t enough to convince Netanyahu to fully withdraw Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, particularly during the first six-week phase of the ceasefire being negotiated.
Accordingly, the US has over the past week sought to persuade Israel to at least extract troops from particular sections of the border near areas of Gaza that are still heavily populated, the senior Israeli official said, confirming a report on the Axios news site.
The Israeli security establishment has appeared flexible on the issue, an Arab official from a mediating country said. The Mossad, Shin Bet and IDF representatives who make up Israel’s negotiating team have stressed the importance of implementing new mechanisms to prevent smuggling. However, they also believe that the IDF can swiftly return to the corridor if need be, so it can afford to withdraw in the meantime to save the lives of the hostages, the Arab official explained.
But Netanyahu does not share this perspective, and has ordered the Israeli negotiating team to take a harder line, the Arab official said.
His office has issued repeated statements in recent weeks and days stressing the importance of maintaining control over the Philadelphi Corridor. “The need for sustained control of the Philadelphi Corridor is a security one… If Israel withdraws, the pressure to prevent its recapture will be enormous, putting our ability to return in significant doubt,” read the most recent one issued on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu had sought in recent days to hold a security cabinet meeting inside the corridor. He was ultimately rebuffed by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar due to concerns regarding ensuring the safety of ministers who would have to travel to the site in armored personnel carriers.
The network said Netanyahu had hoped to use the meeting to highlight the seriousness of Israel’s Philadelphi demand.
But the three Arab, Israeli and US officials speaking to The Times of Israel argued that he was merely politicizing the issue and cautioned that drawing so much public attention to the sticking point makes it harder to solve behind closed doors.
Netanyahu’s doubling down regarding continued Israeli presence on the Philadelphi Corridor has led Egypt to follow suit, the officials added.
There is a significant amount of bad blood between Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, which has only been exacerbated since October 7. Accordingly, Sissi has not been inclined to compromise.
“Sometimes it’s not clear whether the Egyptians are serving as mediators or negotiating on behalf of themselves,” said the Israeli official. “This only strengthens the belief that they’re not serious about addressing the issue of smuggling and allowed it to continue for years.”
Cairo has denied these claims, and insists that the tunnels the IDF has uncovered since taking control of the Gaza side of the Philadelphi Corridor were not active because the Egyptian military had blocked them long ago.
As ceasefire talks moved from Cairo back to Doha this week, the other mediators have sought to lower the temperature between Israel and Egypt, the US official said.
“Philadelphi is becoming the new Rafah,” the Arab official lamented, likening the hype surrounding IDF’s continued presence in the corridor to the frenzy that surrounded Israel’s incursion into Gaza’s southernmost city.
Netanyahu began promising a Rafah offensive in February, “but it turned into somewhat of a political campaign,” the Arab official said.
For two months, Israel held off on the invasion due to US pressure, but eventually moved forward with the operation in May, albeit in a more measured manner.
Last week, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared that the IDF had defeated Hamas’s Rafah Brigade.
Broader victory over Hamas, however, remains elusive, and 107 hostages are still in captivity.
“Netanyahu presented the Rafah invasion as one of the final steps in the path toward total victory, and it sucked all of the oxygen out of the negotiations,” the Arab official said.
“Philadelphi is becoming a similarly political issue, which makes it much harder to address,” they added.
