Netanyahu defends Israel's stay in the Philadelphi Corridor with a map that infuriates the Palestinian Authority

Amid social tension in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held a press conference to defend himself against critics who accuse him of blocking a hostage release deal, stressing the need to keep Israeli troops stationed in the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt.  

Netanyahu insisted that this 14-kilometre strip of land is essential for Israel to achieve its military objectives, arguing that, should the IDF withdraw from the corridor in a deal, it would never be able to return, allowing Hamas to rearm and carry out further massacres similar to those of 7 October.  

Since the Israeli military operation in southern Gaza began, troops have uncovered numerous tunnels connecting the Palestinian enclave to Egypt. This underground network has been used by the terrorist group to smuggle weapons into Gaza. 

Some claim that the Israeli government's decision not to withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor led Hamas to kill the six hostages, although the prime minister has rejected these claims, asserting that they were killed because Hamas ‘does not want a deal’.  

Referring to Israel's objectives in the war - destroying Hamas, rescuing the hostages, ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel and allowing the return of citizens from the northern border - Netanyahu emphasised that all these scenarios go through one place, the Philadelphi corridor. ‘That is the conduit for Hamas‘ oxygen and rearmament,’ he explained.  

The prime minister recalled that, after the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, Israel controlled all the enclave's borders, except for the one with Egypt, the point through which arms reached the Palestinian territory.  

‘The axis of evil needs the Philadelphia corridor’, he said, referring to the Islamic Republic of Iran and its regional allies. For this reason, Netanyahu stressed that Israel ‘must control it’ and remain there.  

Maintaining Israeli control at this strategic point is, according to Netanyahu, key to ‘ensuring that another 7 October does not happen’, as Hamas has promised on several occasions. 

The prime minister and his government have been widely criticised by sections of the Israeli left for allegedly blocking a ceasefire agreement that would allow for the release of the hostages because of their insistence on maintaining control at the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, which divides the north from the south.  

Maintaining control at both points are sine qua non for Israel, while Hamas demands the full withdrawal of Israeli forces to accept any agreement.   

This press conference, criticised by the Israeli left, has sparked anger from the Palestinian Authority, as Netanyahu used a map that did not show the West Bank to illustrate his arguments. 

Ramallah has condemned the use of the map, saying it ‘reveals the truth of the far-right government's colonial and racist agendas’.  

‘Netanyahu continues to repeatedly use a map that includes the West Bank as part of the occupying state, in clear and explicit recognition of this racist colonial crime and in contempt of international legitimacy and its resolutions,’ the Palestinian foreign ministry said.  

According to the Palestinian Authority, ‘this behaviour is in blatant defiance of international efforts to stop the war of extermination and displacement and to revive the peace process based on the two-state solution’. 

This comes in the midst of the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank in recent years. Dubbed ‘Summer Camps’, this operation is focused on the north of the Palestinian territory and is considered the most extensive since Defensive Shield in 2002. The fighting is centred on Jenin and Tulkarem, where the IDF has eliminated and arrested numerous terrorists linked to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.