Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists on controlling the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, a 14-kilometer-long strip on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. “We will not give up the Philadelphia Corridor,” he said at a press conference. This is a strategic and political necessity for Israel.
If the Israeli military remains in the area, it will make it extremely difficult to reach an agreement on a ceasefire in the Gaza war and the release of hostages still held by the Islamist Hamas. Both Hamas and Egypt are demanding that Israel withdraw its troops.
Netanyahu also said that the Islamist Hamas would pay a “very high price” for the deaths of six Israeli hostages whose bodies were discovered in an underground tunnel in the south of the Gaza Strip. According to media reports, the Israeli Health Ministry said the hostages were shot at close range about 48 to 72 hours before the autopsy.
“Israel will not allow this massacre to happen,” Netanyahu said. He apologized to the families of the dead “that we were unable to bring them back alive.”
At several demonstrations in Israel, thousands of people had previously called for an agreement on the release of the hostages. “Your decisions will lead to their deaths,” Israeli media quoted a man whose brother is still being held in the Gaza Strip as saying.
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