Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against claims that his government’s decision that the IDF will remain along the Gaza-Egypt border put hostages’ lives in danger, in a press conference on Monday night.

“The Philadelphi Corridor is cardinal to bringing back the hostages and crushing Hamas so that Gaza will not be a threat to us again,” Netanyahu argued. “What message does [conceding] send to Hamas? If you murder hostages, you’ll get your demands? … I say to [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar — forget about it. It won’t happen.”

Following Hamas’ murder of six hostages, the Philadelphi Corridor has been the subject of heated public debate in Israel in recent days.

The Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, has been a major smuggling route for Hamas, keeping the terrorist organization afloat and armed since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. In recent months, the IDF found a massive network of dozens of tunnels from Egypt into Gaza, including one large enough to smuggle in vehicles.

In cease-fire and hostage release negotiations, Israeli negotiators, on Netanyahu’s orders, have insisted that the IDF remain along the Philadelphi Corridor since the military reached it in late May. Netanyahu’s office has made the case that this is not a change to the cease-fire deal outline presented by President Joe Biden, because it was drafted before the IDF got to the Philadelphi Corridor; others have argued that the demand contradicts the deal in that it calls for a gradual withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, which would include the border. All the while, Hamas has refused to negotiate the specifics of the deal.

Israel’s government sought to take the Philadelphi Corridor off the negotiating table on Thursday night, passing a security cabinet declaration that the IDF would remain along the border with a near-unanimous vote. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi have said in public that Israel could defend itself following a withdrawal from the corridor; Mossad chief David Barnea told the security cabinet that Israel “should not move one millimeter,” according to a source in the meeting. Gallant opposed the cabinet decision, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir abstained because he opposes the cease-fire negotiations. 

Opposition politicians immediately sounded the alarm. 

“The Philadelphi Corridor is Netanyahu’s new excuse,” Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, said on Saturday. “Eleven months of stories and excuses. The time is up and we have to reach a deal. The Philadelphi Corridor waited 20 years. The hostages can’t wait.” 

Yair Golan, head of the newly merged Labor-Meretz and a former IDF deputy chief of staff, said that “the government of Israel declared war on the citizens of Israel by declaring that the Philadelphi Corridor is … the only matter on which Israel’s security depends. It’s a terrible lie.” 

When the news that the IDF recovered the six hostages’ bodies was cleared for publication early Sunday, Gallant said that “the cabinet must gather immediately and reverse the decision made on Thursday. 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. The State of Israel will pursue all Hamas leaders and murderers.”

When masses of Israelis protested in the streets of Tel Aviv on Sunday night, some wrote on the ground that “it is bad to die for Philadelphi,” a reference to Joseph Trumpeldor’s apocryphal last words, “it is good to die for our land.” 

Netanyahu apologized in Monday’s press conference for “not succeeding to bring back [the six hostages alive,” and said that his “heart and the heart of the nation is shattered.”

“Israel will not accept this massacre in silence,” Netanyahu warned. “Hamas will pay a very heavy price.”

Part of that price is to cut off Hamas’ “oxygen tube,” as he called the Philadelphi Corridor, “so that we don’t have another Oct. 7… as Hamas promised.”

Netanyahu used maps to show the location of the corridor and graphics of missiles and rockets crossing from Egypt into Gaza after Israel evacuated Gaza in 2005. He quoted from his own resignation letter from the government in 2004, in which he wrote to then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that “at minimum, I demand keeping the Philadelphi Corridor in our hands … It was clear that if we don’t have the corridor, we would be allowing the creation of a monster.”

In the past, Netanyahu said, he ordered strikes on the area, but never to conquer the corridor because “there was neither national nor international agreement.”

That lack of support is also key to why Netanyahu said Israel should not give up on the Philadelphi Corridor, even if it is militarily capable of retaking it, as Halevi and Gallant have said.

“They told us when we left Gaza [in 2005], ‘what’s the problem? We will go back in with the first rocket that is shot.’ Twenty years went by and we didn’t go back,” Netanyahu said. “It’s not easy to do. It’s not a tactical military question. It’s about great pressure on us from the whole world … It was so hard to stand up to the international pressure not to go into Rafah … from the [International Criminal Court] … we suffered a growing arms embargo, we paid in the lives of our soldiers. It’s nothing compared to what we’ll face if we leave.”

As for hostage negotiations, Netanyahu argued that Hamas softened its stance when Israel reached Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor, but that it hardens its position again “the moment they see any sign of weakness or pressure” on Israel.

The prime minister also warned that if Israel retreats from the Philadelphi Corridor, hostages could be smuggled into the Sinai Desert and from there to Iran or Yemen.

Brig. Gen. (ret.) Amir Avivi, CEO of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, supported Netanyahu’s stance, saying that Israel must retain the Philadelphi Corridor because “you have tens of thousands of rockets and thousands of operatives in the Sinai Peninsula waiting to go in [to Gaza] and build up Hamas — it is a huge danger for Israel.”

Avivi also argued that, contrary to the argument that remaining along the Gaza-Egypt border endangers hostages by eliminating the chance of reaching a deal, retaining the corridor will save hostages’ lives. 

“We know that the deal talks about maybe 30 [living] hostages, when there are more than 100,” Avivi said in a webinar on Sunday. “There is a big possibility that Hamas will take hostages to the Sinai Peninsula, and from there to Iran. We cannot allow a reality where our hostages are taken out of Gaza.”

Avivi said that, while the possibility of hostages being smuggled out of Gaza is rarely discussed in public, he knows Netanyahu often raises it in cabinet meetings.

“I think that if we want to be responsible and not endanger our soldiers and everything they did and also not have hostages taken to Iran, we need to understand that leaving the Philadelphi Corridor is not an option. You cannot guard it from afar,” he said.

Col. (res.) Gabi Siboni, a senior research fellow at the Misgav Institute, warned in an interview with JI last month that, contrary to statements from Halevi and Gallant, Israel will find it difficult to take action along Philadelphi after withdrawing as part of a cease-fire deal.

In the framework of a deal, “just because [mediating countries] say something, doesn’t mean it will happen,” he warned.

Siboni noted that at the end of Operation Cast Lead in 2009, the U.S. negotiated an agreement between Jerusalem and Cairo to stop smuggling from Egypt into Gaza, which stated that Israel has the right to defend itself even against smuggling. Within a month, Israeli media reported that Grad and anti-aircraft missiles were already making their way into Gaza.

Ofer Shelah, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and a former chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told JI that the Philadelphi Corridor is “a red herring,” and not only does Israel need to withdraw from the border, it needs to stop the war in Gaza in its current form.

“There won’t be a deal [with Hamas] if Israel is not willing to stop the war as it stands now,” he said. “It won’t end our conflict with Hamas, but we need to withdraw our forces from Gaza … that includes Philadelphi … Then maybe we can have a hostage deal — not for sure, because there’s another side [Hamas] — but without stopping the war, there won’t be one.”

Shelah acknowledged the potential security risks emanating from the Philadelphi Corridor, but said that Israel “can do what we need to do from the Egyptian side if we have an agreement.” He argued that Israel needs to enter talks with Egypt to guard the border better and for Israel to implement technological means “to ensure there isn’t an underground city.”

The primary problem with securing the Gaza-Egypt border is that Israel is not talking to Egypt about it, part of a larger problem of Israel not working with its allies in the Middle East on the future of Gaza and countering the Iranian axis, Shelah said.

“I think there’s an opportunity for a different kind of architecture in the Middle East, but if Israel continues on this path, it endangers its existence, and for existential threats, we can take risks,” like withdrawing the IDF from the border, he said. “Putting everything on the Philadelphi Corridor is a distraction.”

Shelah called Israel’s leadership “crazy people” who are pushing the country “into a situation where we will rule over Gaza and be viewed as lepers, we will have to deal with the Iranian axis alone and our existence, our physical existence, will be in danger.”

Jewish Insider senior correspondent Ruth Eglash contributed to this report.