Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still stood firm on IDF retention of the critical Philadelphi Corridor after Hamas killed six hostages just three days ago, stressing that caving now would send a dangerous signal that such tactics work.
“Such a step would be a reward for terrorism and would send a dangerous message to Hamas that killing our hostages pays off,” Netanyahu told the ministers.
“This will lead to demands for more and more concessions that will endanger Israel’s security,” he said, according to sources.
Netanyahu spoke as he was under direct attack from Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over Thursday’s 8–1 cabinet vote not to cave on the buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
Rescinding the vote
Gallant called for the cabinet to rescind the vote, arguing for the second meeting in a row that such a move would make it impossible to achieve a hostage deal.
“It is too late for the hostages who were murdered in cold blood. We must bring back the hostages that are still being held by Hamas,” he said in a statement to the media.
The six deceased hostages the IDF found in a tunnel under Rafah on Saturday are believed to have been killed by Palestinians in the last few days.
In past weeks, Netanyahu has told the families of the captives that he was not willing to make a deal at any price.Opposition leader MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) bitterly posted on X on Sunday, “Netanyahu and the ‘death cabinet’ decided not to rescue the hostages. Their blood is on their heads.”
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets on Sunday calling for Netanyahu to make a deal immediately before more of the 66 remaining live hostages out of 101 held there were killed.
It’s believed that Hamas has orders to shoot hostages if they fear the IDF is approaching, making an already precious situation even more dangerous for the 66 remaining live captives.
The country’s major union, the Histadrut, called for a general strike on Monday to protest the absence of a deal.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum called on Netanyahu to take responsibility and explain what was holding up an agreement. “They were all murdered in the last few days, after surviving almost 11 months of abuse, torture, and starvation in Hamas captivity. The delay in signing the deal has led to their deaths and those of many other hostages,” it said.
The IDF’s discovery of the six captives on Saturday came amid a US push to finalize the May 31 deal under whose terms 18-33 of the hostages would have been freed, during a six-week period in exchange for a lull in the Gaza war and the Israeli release of Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists.
Four of the hostages would likely have been freed in the first phase; Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi. The other two hostages Alexander Lobanov and Ori Danino would likely have been released in phase two.
The US, along with the main mediators for the deal Qatar and Egypt, have been unable to close the gaps, including with regard to the Philadelphi Corridor, with Hamas insisting that the IDF must withdraw from that buffer zone in phase one of the deal.
Security officials have been of the opinion that a deal could easily be reached with Hamas, if Israel would agree to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor during phase one of the deal, leaving the question of a permanent withdrawal to be decided later on.
Who is opposing Netanyahu, and who is against him?
Justice Minister Yariv Levin backed Netanyahu at the security cabinet, stating it was dangerous to offer concessions after six hostages had been killed in real-time.
“Where will it lead? What will this do to the negotiations? It doesn’t take much imagination,” he said, as he attacked Gallant for his public opposition to the Philadelphi decision, including through posts on X.
“How can we conduct ourselves if everyone tweets their opinions from the cabinet?” Levin rhetorically asked, saying ministers had a responsibility to back the votes taken there.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “Hamas wants us to surrender. You can’t take an entire country hostage. If we give in to the demands of Hamas as Gallant wants – we have lost the war.”
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said Israel had paid a high price on the international stage when it recaptured the corridor in May and it would be difficult to return, once the IDF left even if that withdrew temporarily.Netanyahu said he believed that if the IDF left, Hamas could once again smuggle weapons under the Philadelphi Corridor as it had in the past. It’s even possible that hostages could be smuggled out of Gaza under the corridor, Netanyahu stated.
He recalled that he had agreed to the three-phase hostage deal US President Joe Biden first unveiled on May 31 and to the bridging proposal the US put forward on August 16.
“There are flexibilities in the negotiations, but not on something as fundamental as the Philadelphia Corridor, which is Hamas’s oxygen pipe,” he said.
In a statement he put out earlier in the day, he stressed that negotiators were still ongoing, but that Hamas has continued to refuse to make a deal.
“Israel is conducting intensive negotiations with the mediators in a massive effort to reach a deal, Hamas continues to firmly refuse any offer,” Netanyahu said. Even worse, he said, it killed the six hostages while talks were ongoing.“Those who murder hostages – do not want a deal,” Netanyahu stated.
We, for our part, did not let up. The Israeli government is committed, and I am personally committed, to continue pursuing a deal that will return all of our hostages and guarantee our security and existence,” he said.
He recalled the first hostage deal in November that was broken by Hamas, in which 105 captives were released, stressing that since December, “Hamas refuses to conduct real negotiations.
“Even after the United States updated the outline of the deal on August 16 – we agreed, and Hamas again refused,” Netanyahu stressed.
Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq on Sunday blamed Israel and the Biden administration for the deaths of the six hostages in a message on the group’s Telegram page.
Those who bear “responsibility” are “the occupation which insists on continuing the genocidal war and evading reaching a ceasefire agreement, and the American administration because of its bias, support, and complicity in this aggression,” he said.
“Hamas is more eager than Biden about the lives of its prisoners, which is why it agreed to his proposal in particular and to the Security Council resolution, while Netanyahu rejected them, and his administration surrendered to Netanyahu’s conditions, aimed at disrupting the reaching of an agreement, in order to preserve his power,” he stated.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. “The Israelis should choose between Netanyahu and the deal.”Netanyahu warned Hamas, “You will pay the price. We will not rest, nor will we be silent. We will pursue you, we will find you and we will settle accounts with you.
“We saw the inconceivable brutality of the Hamas murderers on October 7 and we have seen it again in the tunnels under Rafah,” he said.
“The fact that Hamas is continuing to perpetrate atrocities like those it carried out on October 7 requires us to do everything so that it will be unable to perpetrate these atrocities again,” he stressed.
To the nation in mourning, he said, “This is a difficult day for us. Together with all citizens of Israel, I was outraged to the depths of my soul by the horrific, cold-blooded murder of six of our hostages:
“Together with the entire nation, my wife and I share in the families’ deep mourning,” he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.