Philadelphi Corridor Archives

Al-Duwairi: Israel’s Netzarim Withdrawal is a Retreat, a Strategic Shift

CrossFireArabia
February 9, 2025

Military strategic expert Major General Fayez Al-Duwairi said the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from the Netzarim axis represents a strategic shift in battle with its plan to divide and control the Gaza Strip from its north failing.

Al-Duwairi explained the Israeli occupation army tried to establish a permanent presence in the area but was forced to retreat under the pressure of battles and political agreements.

Speaking on Al Jazeera, Al-Duwairi added the occupation expanded the Netzarim axis to reach a width of 80 kilometers and a depth of between 6.5 and 7 kilometers, and established four main sites supported by four other supporting sites.

He pointed out although the occupation army began to establish infrastructure to enhance the sustainability of its presence, most of its facilities were dismantled, reflecting its awareness of the possibility of withdrawal at any moment.

He explained the recent agreement imposes on it to withdraw from Netzarim permanently. As well the military expert stressed that Israel will neither be able to remain in the Philadelphi Corridor or the buffer zone later.

A different reality

He pointed out that the Israeli plan was initially aimed at controlling the northern areas of Gaza but the resistance made sure this didn’t happen and imposed a different reality which forced the Zionist army to recalculate.

Al-Duwairi indicated that the occupation may try to procrastinate or delay the implementation of the withdrawal, but in the end it is obliged to evacuate the site on the 22nd day of the deal.

Regarding the withdrawal, he explained this move will facilitate the movement of citizens, especially in light of the siege imposed by the occupation’s control of the corridor.

However, he stressed the most important thing is to restore sovereignty – even partially – to the Palestinians, indicating the current scene is radically different from the calculations of the occupation, which wanted to impose a new political reality.

He considered the withdrawal is not just a military step, but carries political and strategic dimensions, as it reflects the failure of the Israeli vision for Gaza and confirms the will of the resistance and negotiation to impose new equations on the ground.

The ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement in Gaza went into effect on 19 January and includes three stages, each lasting 42 days. During the first, negotiations will be held to start a second stage, then a third, with the mediation of Qatar, Egypt, and the United States according to Jo24.

News

No Ceasefire Deal Before Biden Leaves Office!

CrossFireArabia
September 20, 2024

Senior U.S. officials have privately acknowledged they don’t expect a Gaza ceasefire agreement to be reached before the end of President Biden’s term in January 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The newspaper cited top-level officials in the White House, State Department and Pentagon without naming them according to the Quds News Network.

“No deal is imminent,” one of the U.S. officials said. “I’m not sure it ever gets done.”

Senior U.S. officials have privately acknowledged they don’t expect a Gaza ceasefire agreement to be reached before the end of President Biden’s term in January, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

More details: https://t.co/q0oGuzLHIt pic.twitter.com/SK7O334NS4
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) September 20, 2024

Officials cited two main reasons for the pessimism.

The two obstacles that have been especially difficult: Israel’s demand to keep forces in the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt and the specifics of an exchange deal of Israeli captives for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

As a result, the mood inside the administration and in the Middle East is as gloomy as it has been in months, the newspaper said.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan met Wednesday with the relatives of the remaining seven American captives held in Gaza, telling them that securing their release was a top priority for Biden. But a statement from the families said they “expressed frustration with the lack of tangible progress” to Sullivan, urging the administration to make a deal as soon as possible.

John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, told reporters Wednesday the prospects of a completed deal were “daunting,” and though the administration signaled for months that a deal was near, said, “we aren’t any closer to that now than we were even a week ago.”

One of the officials said “it would be irresponsible” for the administration to give up seeking an agreement that brings at least temporary relief to the region. But the official also signaled frustration with the Israelis and Hamas.

“As we’ve said from the outset, it is going to require leadership and compromise,” the official said, “and we urge all sides to demonstrate it.”

“I can tell you that we do not believe that deal is falling apart,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Thursday before the report was published.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said two weeks ago that 90% of a ceasefire deal had been agreed upon.

The United States and mediators Qatar and Egypt have for months attempted to secure a ceasefire but have failed to bring Israel and Hamas to a final agreement.

News

Ex-Shabak Chief: Netanyahu Must Stop The Gaza War Now

CrossFireArabia
September 7, 2024

Nadav Argaman, ex-head of the Israeli General Security Service (Shabak), called for a immediate halt to the fighting in the Gaza Strip and an end to the war. He said Israel is not qualified for long wars.

Argaman added according to Israel’s Channel 12 the war should have ended a long time ago, stressing “the lives of those in captivity are more important than anything, and they must be returned despite the painful price we will pay in the deal.”

Argaman criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying what he is doing now, as per continuing the wara on Gaza, is for the benefit of the continuation of his rule and the preservation of his coalition government and not for the security of Israel as highlighted in Al Jazeera.

Nadav Argaman, the former head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency, has slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for misleading the country about the importance of controlling the Philadelphi Corridor, the border area between Gaza and Egypt. pic.twitter.com/EM4etYNWmq
— Julie Webb-Pullman (@juliewebbp) September 7, 2024

He added that Netanyahu’s insistence on remaining in the Philadelphi Corridor aims only to preserve his government. He explained there is no connection between the existing weapons in the Gaza Strip and the Philadelphi Corridor, and that it is Netanyahu who invented this.

The former Shabak chief stressed the majority of the weapons in Gaza are produced by Hamas itself, and that it has made these weapons through adapting so-called “dual-use materials” that enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing as fertilizers for agriculture.

(3)💥#Boom: Nadav Argaman destroys Netanyahu's false claim: "Very little weaponry was smuggled into Gaza through those tunnels. The majority of smuggling into Gaza was through the Rafah border crossing. We know this unequivocally… So we are now relegated to living with this… pic.twitter.com/USSCgMw8OF
— UnXeptable (@UnxeptableD) September 6, 2024

“The Philadelphi axis is not important to the axis of evil, but to the axis of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich,” he maintained.

“Our priority should be to return the kidnapped soldiers, ceasefire in Gaza and shift our weight to the north and the West Bank,” Argaman said, adding, “We will deal with the risks that will arise as a result of such a deal later.”

He explained Israel must establish a regional and international alliance with the Americans to confront Iran, noting the only way to do so is to stop the war in the Gaza Strip according to Jo24.

Analyses

Using Philadelphi to Block Hostages Deal

CrossFireArabia
September 5, 2024

Where do we go from here? Many people, including those in Israel are deeply frustrated with the prolonged war on Gaza because of the stubbornness of one man who for selfish reasons doesn’t want to stop the war on Gaza that has now been going on for the best part of a year.

Sources close to the Israeli government have revealed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deliberately undermining a potential prisoner deal that may be reached through American, Qatari and Egyptian mediation for his own political, personal gains and reasons.

According to an analysis published in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper, Netanyahu decided weeks ago he did not want a deal to free Israeli prisoners who remain in different parts of Gaza.

Netanayhu's declaration that Israel will retain control of the Philadelphi route serves his desire to maintain his unholy trinity: The prime ministership, incitement against the left, and the occupation / Haaretz editor-in-chief Aluf Bennhttps://t.co/Hwri5rXx95
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) September 4, 2024

This is despite the opportunities that have arisen over the past weeks and months for such a deal and despite the extensive efforts of teams and delegates going to and coming back from Doha and Cairo where endless negotiations tick almost round the clock.

Today, a further obstacle has been bolted in these talks that have tended to circle around the Netanyahu personality and character. He is now – and has been for the last couple of weeks at least – using the so-called Philadelphi Corridor—a 14-kilometer stretch along the Gaza-Egypt border — to bolster his position among his extreme rightwing allies in the cabinet and stop a deal in its tracks, one that would release the hostages and end the war on Hamas.

Philadelphi Corridor

By focusing public and media attention on the corridor, Netanyahu has effectively shifted attention and the narrative away from the issue of the fate of Israeli prisoners – now down to slightly more than 100 – and have turned the debate instead over so-called measures to do with Israeli’s security and the refusal to move out of the corridor which is presently occupied by Israeli troops and that is unacceptable to Hamas because it would establish a permenant Israeli presence there.

An Israeli government insider revealed that the staunch anti-ceasefire prime minister, and acting with near-total dictatorial authority, has kept any potential exchange deal from reaching the cabinet, implying that it is confined to him alone and within his office.

He said this unilateral approach, which has been pursued by Netanyahu over the past months has led to growing frustration among ministers in the government who recognize the sabotage but remain silent and have remained so in the past out of fear for their political survival and continuity in government.

“Netanyahu will pursue an endless war because that’s what is good for him,” the source stated, highlighting the prime minister’s willingness to prolong the conflict for personal and political advantage. This includes the legal consequences and court hearings he faces after the court.

The Haaretz analysis also criticizes the Israeli official narrative that Hamas will not agree to any deal, labeling it as a political ploy. This stance, coupled with Netanyahu’s declarations, has effectively killed any momentum for negotiations, leaving the fate of the prisoners hanging in the balance as reported in the Quds News Network.

News

Netanyahu Looks For ‘Imaginary Victory’ in Gaza

CrossFireArabia
September 3, 2024

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is looking for an “imaginary victory” in Gaza that he has not succeeded in selling to his audience, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Monday.

Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, was commenting on a speech by Netanyahu during which he insisted on keeping the Gaza-Egypt border area known as the Philadelphi Corridor under the Israeli army’s control, claiming it is necessary for achieving the war on Gaza’s goals.

“Netanyahu’s statements are the speech of a desperate person who is looking for an imaginary victory that he has not succeeded in marketing to his audience after 10 months of his Nazi war against our people in the Gaza Strip,” Al-Rishq said.

"There is clearly tremendous Palestinian suffering, but there is no Israeli victory."

Former Israeli negotiator and president of the US/Middle East Project, Daniel Levy, says that Israel's goal for victory is defeating Hamas and that the "IDF has conspicuously failed" to do so. pic.twitter.com/OWoZfZ3tbv
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 19, 2024

He “confirms with his statements today [Monday] that he is the one obstructing the exchange deal and the cease-fire agreement,” he said.

He added that any delay in his “approval and commitment to what was reached on July 7 (in a cease-fire proposal) means putting the lives of more prisoners at risk,” referring to the recent deaths of six Israeli captives in Gaza, saying “Netanyahu bears responsibility for the lives and safety of the prisoners held by the resistance.”

Earlier in the day, Netanyahu reaffirmed his intention to maintain Israeli troops in the Philadelphi Corridor.

“If we withdraw, we won’t (be able to) return there — not for 42 days and not for 42 years,” Israel’s Channel 12 quoted him as saying at a Cabinet meeting.

He was referring to the first 42-day phase of a proposed Gaza cease-fire and hostage swap deal with Hamas.

Hamas says Netanyahu looking for 'imaginary victory' in Gaza
Israeli premier insists on keeping Philadelphi Corridor under army's control, claiming it is necessary for achieving goals of war#News #DailyNews #LiveNews #WorldNews #World pic.twitter.com/YuI8DBV85V
— Breaking News (@FastNews77) September 3, 2024

Netanyahu claimed that the Philadelphi Corridor, a demilitarized area on the border between Gaza and Egypt, is a “lifeline” for Hamas.

Contrary to his insistence on the Philadelphi Corridor, his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, called Sunday for the immediate convening of the Security Cabinet to reverse its decision to keep forces in the corridor.

Israel estimates that more than 100 hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, some of whom are believed to have been already killed.

For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and a cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’s demands to stop the war.

Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip has killed nearly 40,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 94,200 others, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of the enclave has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice according to Anadolu.