US: 2 issues holding up deal, Netanyahu comments on Philadelphi make things ‘difficult’

A senior Biden administration official said on Wednesday a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas was being held up by two remaining obstacles: the list of Palestinian security prisoners Hamas is seeking to free and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border.

The official added that repeated public statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to maintain an Israeli presence on the corridor indefinitely was making things “difficult.”

In a briefing with reporters, the senior US official laid out the framework of the deal and offered an update on where the negotiations stand.

The deal has three components: conditions of the hostage-prisoner exchange, details on the influx of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the rehabilitation of the Strip, and the terms of the ceasefire, including an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to 14 of the deal’s 18 paragraphs, the US official said. One of the four remaining paragraphs has a very technical fix on which a consensus is needed and another three paragraphs regarding the hostage swap are still being negotiated. “Basically, 90% of this deal has been agreed, and it’s been agreed at terms that even Hamas had in [its own proposal].”

The official said the negotiations in Doha over the past week focused largely on the hostages-for-prisoners swap component of the deal and that some progress had been made.

This part of the deal envisions hundreds of Palestinian prisoners being released, including terror convicts serving life sentences, in exchange for the 101 remaining hostages. Israel is seeking to maximize the number of vetoes it receives over the identities of the Palestinian prisoners Hamas wants to be released.

There are roughly 500 Palestinians serving life sentences in Israeli prisons for terror offenses, the official said, adding that a small fraction of them will be released in the first phase of the deal, in exchange for hostages in the so-called humanitarian category, and a larger number will be released in the second phase of the deal in exchange for male hostages under 50.

“What Hamas has been demanding here, the Israelis have come forward to meet the terms as best they can,” the senior Biden official said, adding that the terror group has made this part of negotiations “a pretty frustrating process.”

“Hamas has been putting some things on the table that have been complete nonstarters [regarding] the exchange, and they’re different than what was agreed months ago,” he said. “Until that is worked out, you’re not going to have a deal.”

In a press conference on Wednesday night, Netanyahu was asked whether the Philadelphi Corridor issue was the sole obstacle to a deal, and laughed at the notion. It’s not the only obstacle, he stressed, saying others include the ratio of hostages to terrorists and Israel’s demand to veto the release of some terrorists and to exile others.

“Hamas has rejected everything,” he said. “We’re trying to find some area to begin the negotiations; they’re refusing to do that.”

Executions call into question Hamas readiness to do any kind of a deal

Further harming the process was Hamas’s execution of six Israeli hostages last week, the official said, explaining that they had been negotiating based on a list of hostages that has since shrunk.

The six captives’ guards were apparently tipped off to IDF soldiers approaching the Rafah tunnel where they were being held and executed them. Their bullet-riddled bodies were recovered by the IDF and returned to Israel, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli.

The “totally outrageous execution” of the six hostages is “why we have always been focused on the accountability for Hamas,” the US official said.

The killings are “coloring the discussions and have brought a sense of urgency to the process, but it has also called into question Hamas’s readiness to do a deal of any kind,” he added.

The official also indicated that fewer living hostages would be released in the first phase of the deal as a result of Hamas’s execution of six captives last week.

“For each hostage, there’s a certain number of Palestinian prisoners that will come out, so you just have fewer hostages as part of the deal in phase one,” the official said. “It’s tragic and awful, and it’s affecting all of us.”

Also part of this section of the deal is the exit of wounded Gazan civilians and Hamas fighters for treatment abroad, per the terror group’s demands, the official said.

Netanyahu and the Philadelphi making things difficult

As for the ceasefire and IDF withdrawal section of the deal, the US official reiterated that the IDF will pull out of all densely populated areas of Gaza during the first 42-day phase.

The part that remains under dispute is regarding the IDF’s withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor in phase one. The senior US official explained that the nine-mile border stretch is not mentioned in the text of the proposal.

In July, a pair of maps were submitted — one regarding IDF deployment in the northern Strip’s Wadi Gaza Corridor, which has been agreed to, and another regarding deployment in the Philadelphi Corridor — to be added to the annex of the deal.

“A dispute emerged whether the Philadelphia Corridor, which is effectively a road on the border of Gaza and Egypt, is a densely populated area,” the senior administration official said.

In recent weeks, Israel produced a proposal under which it would significantly reduce its military presence along the Philadelphi, which the US official said “is technically consistent with the deal.”

But Hamas has rejected the new demand regarding the Philadelphi Corridor, which indeed had not been part of Israel’s original May proposal, even in map form.

“That is an issue that has remained in dispute, and then it’s become a bit of a political debate in Israel,” the official said, referencing how Netanyahu has aggressively pushed the need for Israel to remain in the corridor in recent days and weeks.

The official said 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,” he said.

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

The official went on to criticize certain Israeli ministers — apparently far-right cabinet members Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich — 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 asserted.

The two ministers have vowed to oppose and bring down the government if the framework laid out by the US in May is advanced.

Israel is, however, required to fully withdraw from the corridor in phase two of the agreement, the official clarified. Netanyahu has indicated he is prepared to do this but has expressed skepticism that mediators will come up with an alternative force to replace the IDF, without which the premier says he won’t pull his forces from the Philadelphi.

Regarding Netanyahu’s criticism of Egypt for allegedly allowing weapons to be smuggled through the Philadelphi, the US official stressed that Cairo wants its border with Gaza to be secure and does not want any smuggling to take place there.

The Biden administration official said an “alternative security force” won’t be necessary for securing the Philadelphi Corridor.

Asked about long-term arrangements to secure the Egypt-Gaza border, the official said the US has been working with Egypt on solutions for months.

“We think we can fully account for Israel’s security needs on that corridor in ways that will be almost unprecedented, and that does not require some alternative security force,” the official said.

The official didn’t specify whether he was talking about phase one or phase two, but he appeared to be talking about the latter.

Appearing to explain why a security force won’t be necessary along the corridor, the senior US official argued that the area northwest of the Rafah Crossing is “very secure” and that arrangements would be put in place to detect tunnels throughout the entirety of the area. Southeast of the Rafah Crossing to Israel’s Kerem Shalom Crossing is less of a concern because the area is less populated, the official maintained.

Other than the issues of the Philadelphi Corridor and the release of Hamas prisoners, the sides were largely in agreement, the US official maintained.

The consensus extended to the humanitarian component of the deal

Whereas the previous hostage deal in November saw 200 trucks of aid enter Gaza every day, the deal currently being negotiated would see 600 trucks of aid enter Gaza daily, including 50 trucks of food, the official said.

Entering the Strip will be equipment to clear rubble; equipment for rehabilitating hospitals, medical centers, and bakeries; equipment for the rehabilitation of roads, electricity, water, sewage, and communication lines in all areas of the Gaza Strip; and supplies to support the internally displaced, including at least 60,000 temporary homes, 200,000 tents.

There will also be full freedom of movement for civilians and full access for UN and other humanitarian organizations to all areas of the Gaza Strip, the official said.

The official added that arrangements have also been made to allow for the reopening of the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt in phase one of the deal. The gate has been closed since Israel took over the Palestinian side in May, and Cairo has refused to reopen its side until Israel withdraws.

“We still see this deal as the most viable — perhaps the only viable — option for saving the lives of hostages, stopping the war, bringing immediate relief to Gazans and also making sure we fully account for Israel’s security,” the official asserted.

“We are still committed to doing all we can to try to get it done, but I’m not going to make any predictions,” he added.

The official said that the bridging proposal that the US presented last month and continues to adapt included for the first time the names of hostages and prisoners to be released.

Roughly 30 hostages were slated to be released in the first phase from the following three categories: women, including female soldiers; men over 50 years old and the ill and wounded.

It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 33 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.