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While the Biden administration seemed to approve Israel’s capture of the Philadelphi Corridor in May, it now appears opposed to Israel’s control of the Corridor, with one unnamed senior US official blaming Israel’s insistence on keeping control of the Corridor as holding up negotiations with Hamas.
To counter growing pressure for Israel to withdraw from the Corridor, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a press conference stating why retaining control of the Corridor was essential to Israel. Simply put: “The Philadelphi Corridor is of cardinal importance both in bringing the hostages [home] and ensuring that Hamas will be crushed and that Gaza will never again constitute a threat to us.”
In the presser, Bibi stated Israel’s four objectives to the war against Hamas and Hezbollah: “Eliminating Hamas, returning all of the hostages, ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel, and returning our residents securely to their homes on the northern border.” Securing the Corridor, which Bibi calls “Hamas’ lifeline and armament line,” is essential to achieving the first three goals, according to the prime minister.
Bibi also stated that he was aware of the Corridor’s importance as early as 2004, before Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005. He mentioned that his “minimal demands” for the disengagement included Israel retaining control over all crossings in and out of Gaza, including the Corridor. Bibi stated that he then predicted that if Israel were to give up the control of those crossings, Gaza would become a haven for terrorists. Bibi’s resignation letter to Ariel Sharon in August 2005 confirms this foresight, with Bibi writing at the time: “I am not prepared to be a partner to a move [i.e., total Israeli disengagement from Gaza] which ignores reality, and proceeds blindly toward turning the Gaza Strip into a base for Islamic terrorism which will threaten the state.” Since 2005, Hamas has initiated four major wars and countless other attacks against Israel. So it looks like Bibi’s concerns were spot on.
In the press briefing, Bibi argues that Hamas uses the Philadelphi Corridor to arm itself. Netanyahu stated that “…the moment we left there, we did not have any barrier to the massive infiltration of weapons, war materiel, machinery to manufacture rockets, and machines for excavating tunnels – all under the aegis of Iran, directed by Iran and financed by Iran. All the things that you see here came in. Gaza became a massive threat to the State of Israel because there was no barrier here [on the Philadelphi Corridor]. This is what happened.”
Bibi also rightfully blamed Egypt as complicit in allowing Hamas to benefit from the Corridor. Netanyahu stated that the arming of Gaza occurred “…energetically under the Morsi regime, but it went on afterwards, from the Mubarak regime as well through other regimes.” The oblique reference to “other regimes” is likely a reference to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government, in power since 2014, given that Hamas used the Corridor to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza most recently during Sisi’s tenure.
Lastly, Bibi recognized that Israeli control of the Corridor prevents Hamas from smuggling the remaining hostages out of Gaza. Netanyahu stated that he believes that Hamas could use the Corridor to smuggle hostages to Sinai, and then on to Iran or Yemen.
It remains to see if the Biden administration will put such enormous pressure on Israel to cave on the issue of the Corridor. But based on logic, Netanyahu is correct in wanting to keep Israeli control over it.
