Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist on the Philadelphi corridor and Hamas rejects an official announcement of "new proposals," but the Americans are not giving up, and are expected to present a mediation proposal, the second in less than a month. In Washington, they are considering submitting the proposal this weekend, on Friday or Saturday, but they are no longer defining it as a "final proposal, " with the understanding that the difficulties are not likely to be resolved soon.
Meanwhile, Hamas in a statement issued overnight between Wednesday and Thursday rejected any new cease-fire proposals, and claimed that Netanyahu's insistence on staying on the Philadelphi Corridor was intended to thwart a deal. "Pressure must be put on Netanyahu and his government and they must be bound to what was agreed upon," Hamas said in a statement, “We warn against falling into Netanyahu's trap and tricks, as he uses negotiations to prolong the aggression against our people."
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President Joe Biden, a smuggling tunnel from Philadelphi to Egypt, Benjamin Netanyahu
( Photos: Haim Goldberg, Nathan Howard/Reuters, IDF spokesman)
The U.S. administration has not yet decided whether President Joe Biden will present the proposal alone, or whether it will be presented jointly by the United States and the mediators Qatar and Egypt. Either way, there is a great deal of pessimism among those involved in the negotiations, and the feeling that the chances of a deal are very low.
The understanding is that there will be no deal as long as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on remaining in the Philadelphi Corridor, and in the U.S. they are considering increasing the pressure on Netanyahu to be more flexible under the new proposal, and to demand a dramatic decrease in the number of forces in Philadelphi.
But even on the other side, it is not clear if there is a willingness for a deal. An American source told Ynet Wednesday night that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is expected to reject the deal. "But we must continue and try to reach it, we will never give up. We owe it to the hostages," he emphasized. According to him, Netanyahu's statements saying that Israel will not withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor are only part of a negotiation tactic, but also stem from the prime minister's fear of government ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, who threatened to dissolve the government if he agreed to what they call a "promiscuous deal."
At the same time, senior U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal that the upcoming proposal is expected to be more detailed than the first "mediation proposal" submitted last month, and will include more precise details regarding the exchange of hostages for prisoners, what may lead to a resumption of fighting, and how long the Israeli forces can stay In the Philadelphi area. Most of the proposed outline has been agreed upon, according to those senior officials, but they emphasize that Hamas remains the party that refuses to approve it. According to them, the proposed deal gives Hamas most of its demands while Israel made many concessions to reach the deal.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explains the significance of controlling the Philadelphi Corridor to reporters
(Photo: Abir Sultan/ POOL / AFP)
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Wednesday night referred to Netanyahu's second press conference - this time in English - in which he also elaborated at length on his insistence on maintaining a presence on the Philadelphi Corridor, and claimed that his demand does not contradict the Israeli outline that he himself submitted on May 27.
At the press conference, Netanyahu left an opening for a withdrawal from Philadelphi in the second phase of the deal, though the fact is that in order to reach it another negotiation must be completed on the end of the war with Hamas and the chances of reaching it are slim. Netanyahu said that his demand in such future negotiations would be to have some kind of presence on the route in order to make sure that there would be no smuggling.
"We agreed to thin out the number of soldiers along the corridor, we don't need an entire division there," he said, referring to the first phase of the deal. "For 42 days we will stay while drawing down our forces, but we have agreed to start talks on a permanent cease-fire, and our terms must include a situation where the Philadelphi Corridor will be impenetrable. Someone must be there - I don't care who. Bring someone who will show us not on paper or in words but on the ground, day after day, week after week, that they can prevent a repeat of what happened, we are open to considering it."
The chances of an agreement being reached for the second stage and the end of the war are already slim, and Israel insists that it will be able to resume fighting after the first stage, in which dozens of hostages from the humanitarian categories will be released.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller responded to this Wednesday night, saying that in a proposal from May Israel did agree to evacuate from "densely populated areas," and according to him, this also includes the Philadelphi Corridor. Miller said that reaching a deal "is going to require flexibility from the Government of Israel, just as it’s going to require Hamas to finally find a reason – a way to get to yes. And so we’re going to continue to engage with the Government of Israel on this question. We recognize the very real security needs that Israel has to ensuring that there can’t be smuggling across the Philadelphi Corridor. We think that there are ways to address it that, and it’s also important that we recognize the very real security imperatives to Israel in reaching a ceasefire that allows us to hopefully reach a diplomatic resolution to the situation on the Israeli-Lebanon border and hopefully helps us calm broader regional tensions, all of which are a threat to Israel’s security."
Another spokesman for the U.S. State Department, Samuel Warberg, was interviewed at the same time by Sky News in Arabic and said that he could not reveal the efforts that he said were going on behind the scenes: "We cannot force our will on Israel and Hamas to accept the agreement. We are working to free all of the hostages," he said. He added that both Israel and Hamas do not agree to the agreement so far and that both sides are responsible for this. He also said that the U.S. believes that "Israel is able to defend itself against any attack even without its presence on the Philadelphi Corridor."
In the meantime, a senior Egyptian official harshly attacked Netanyahu for his statements regarding the Philadelphi Corridor - saying that this was a "message to Washington" that he refuses any offer of a deal and "cancels the efforts to release hostages and prisoners". The source, who was quoted by the Egyptian channel Al Qahera News, added: "The Prime Minister of Israel is spreading lies to cover up his failure in Gaza. Netanyahu, through his claims of arms smuggling from Egypt, is paving the way for the announcement of his security and political failure, failure to find the hostages and failure to achieve some kind of victory in Gaza and the West Bank. All parties are not satisfied with the continued failure of the Israeli prime minister to reach a cease-fire agreement."