Despite nightly protests involving thousands of people, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the airwaves for two hours this week to explain why freeing the remaining hostages still held by Hamas militants in Gaza is not his top priority, but the “second” goal of the war.
“No one will preach to me,” he fired back at a growing list of critics.
Those critics include the mother of Almog Sarusi, a 27-year-old hostage whose body was among six recovered last weekend. He was “sacrificed on the altar” of the Philadelphi Corridor, Nira Sarusi said at her son’s funeral.
Netanyahu’s been making a case for prioritizing a 14-kilometre-long strip of land along the border between Gaza and Egypt — the Philadelphi Corridor — and holding it indefinitely, if Israel sees fit.
Negotiators from the U.S., Qatar and Egypt are working on a proposal that would see Israeli troops leave populated areas of Gaza in phases, a plan Netanyahu initially endorsed.
But as international mediators try to get Israel and Hamas to agree on a ceasefire and see hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, Netanyahu’s insistence on maintaining the Philadelphi Corridor may prove a dealbreaker. Which prisoners to free, has also been contentious.
Still, White House officials said 90 per cent of this deal has been agreed upon, an assessment challenged by Netanyahu on the Fox network Thursday.
“It’s exactly inaccurate,” said Netanyahu, blaming Hamas. “They don’t agree to anything.”
The militant group has said it does accept much of the framework.
Hamas insists all Israeli troops leave Gaza, with lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya telling the Al Jazeera network, “without withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor, there will be no agreement.”
WATCH | Families of hostages say Israeli PM must bend:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must give up the ‘fantasy’ of a military victory over Hamas and negotiate for the release of hostages, says Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Sagui Dekel-Chen, believed to be one of the hostages Hamas is still holding in Gaza.
Without a deal, Israel’s military operations will continue and the death toll in Gaza will rise; the latest estimates from the Hamas-run Health Ministry show 40,800 have died.
Egypt is also opposed to soldiers remaining, threatening to cancel its peace treaty with Israel if troops hold the border. Cairo says the plan is in violation of the 1979 Camp David Accords.
But Netanyahu, who didn’t mention the need for keeping the Philadelphi Corridor for the first seven months of the war, said he now sees it as crucial to prevent Hamas from rearming itself through tunnels under the border.
“People said, ‘If you stay, this will kill the deal.’ And I say, ‘Such a deal will kill us,'” Netanyahu told foreign journalists on Wednesday.
Pressure is growing on him to relent, amid a warning that he’s “placing Israel in existential danger.”
Protests in Tel Aviv
Protests swell on the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities, with at least 250,000 people demonstrating on Sunday, and many continuing to come out every night since. They have lit fires and clashed with police, yelling in front of Netanyahu’s residences in Jerusalem and Caesarea. Yellow flags, symbolizing the demands for an agreement, are held high alongside signs that read: “This is the last chance for hostages! Ceasefire deal now!”
WATCH | A plea to save remaining hostages:
Thousands of mourners attended a funeral service on Monday for Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose body was retrieved from southern Gaza tunnels along with the bodies of five others seized in the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attacks. Jon Polin said he hoped his son’s death would not be in vain and could help prompt the release of the remaining 101 hostages still held in Gaza.
Israel’s largest union held a general strike on Monday, disrupting hospitals and the country’s main international airport, closing stores and banks and keeping government workers away from their desks. They were ordered back to work by the courts mid-afternoon.
“But we are in a very, very hard situation now, we and all the country, because of the hostages,” said Yehuda Ullmann, head of the surgery division at Rambam Hospital in Haifa. “We can’t stand aside and that’s why we came into a strike.”
Netanyahu shot back that the union is siding with Hamas.
Hostage families accuse Netanyahu and his ministers of playing “Russian roulette,” calling them “Mr. Abandonment and the cabinet of murderers.”
“All of you,” said Naama Weinberg, cousin of slain hostage Itay Svirsky. “You may have not pulled the trigger, but you have handed Hamas the weapon. And you allowed Hamas to do this.”
‘Political survival’
The families accuse Netanyahu of pandering to the views of his hardline coalition partners, allies he needs in order to stay in power. Those politicians reject any deal with Hamas and want the war to continue until “total victory” — the destruction of the militant group, something Israel’s generals have said is unrealistic.
But as Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Netanyahu is known for “only thinking about his own political survival,” says Gayil Talshir, author of a book on the politician and a professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
Israel’s military and security establishment is also challenging Netanyahu’s Philadelphi plan.
WATCH | Protesters blame hostage deaths on Israeli PM’s inaction:
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Israel to protest the government after six hostages were found dead in a tunnel in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza. Many accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of not doing enough to reach a deal to release the remaining hostages.
At a cabinet meeting last week, the prime minister reportedly demanded a vote of support with a bang of his fist on the table. But his defence minister pushed back.
“You are deciding to stay on the Philadelphi Corridor. Does this seem logical to you?” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant asked. “There are living [hostages] there!”
One of the country’s most experienced military commanders, Gallant says his troops can retake the corridor in eight hours if there are problems after they leave.
A ‘final offer’
Washington is also frustrated. After Netanyahu pushed his Philadelphi goals on Monday, a U.S. negotiator trying to bring the sides together told CNN “this guy torpedoed everything in one speech.”
The U.S. is reportedly working on a “final offer” to present to both sides, pressuring Israel and Hamas to “look for reasons to get to yes, rather than reasons to say no,” said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
But publicly at least, there’s no sign Netanyahu is listening. He’s either dug in or is trying to “prolong this as long as he can,” according to Jon Allen, Canada’s former ambassador to Israel, suggesting the Israeli prime minister is waiting for the results of the U.S. election on Nov. 4.
“He’s definitely hoping for a [Donald] Trump victory,” Allen said. “There’s no question that Kamala Harris will be tougher on him and potentially on Israel.”
The protestors on Israel’s streets worry that such a wait could be too late for the hostages still alive.