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The Biden presidency appeared to support Israel’s record of the Philadelphi Corridor in May, but it now appears to be opposed to it. One senior US official, an unknown senior US official, cited Israel’s emphasis on maintaining control of the Corridor as preventing Hamas ‘ conversations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated in a press event why maintaining control of the Hall was crucial to Israel in response to growing pressure to do so. Simply put,” The Philadelphi Corridor is of cardinal importance in bringing the hostages home [and making sure that Hamas will be crushed and that Gaza will never again pose a threat to us.”
In the keynote, Bibi stated Israel’s four goals to the battle against Hamas and Hezbollah:” Eliminating Hamas, returning all of the hostages, ensuring that Gaza not again constitutes a menace to Israel, and returning our residents safely to their homes on the north boundary”. Securing the Corridor, which Bibi calls” Hamas ‘ crutch and weapons line”, is essential to achieving the second three targets, according to the prime minister.
Before Israel left Gaza in 2005, Bibi added that he was aware of the importance of the Corridor as early as 2004. He mentioned that Israel’s “minimal requirements” for the withdrawal included maintaining complete power over all border crossings into and out of Gaza, including the Hall. According to Bibi, he therefore predicted that if Israel were to renounce power over those bridges, Gaza would turn into a haven for terrorists. In August 2005, Bibi wrote in her resignation letter to Ariel Sharon that” I am not prepared to be a partner to a move [i .e., total Israeli disengagement from Gaza ] that ignores reality and proceeds blindly toward turning the Gaza Strip into a base for Islamic terrorism which will threaten the state. Hamas has launched numerous other attacks against Israel and four big war since 2005. But it appears as though Bibi’s fears were genuine.
Bibi claims in the media briefing that Hamas uses the Philadelphi Corridor to shoulder itself. We did not have any barriers to the large invasion of arms, war equipment, rocket-making equipment, and tunnel drilling equipment, according to Netanyahu, who was directed by Iran and funded by Iran. Everything you see around was imported. Because there was no barrier [on the Philadelphi Corridor] that, Gaza became a significant threat to the State of Israel. This is what happened”.
Bibi even rightly attributed Egypt’s complicity in allowing Hamas to profit from the Hall to Bibi. According to Netanyahu, the arming of Gaza took place “energetically under the Morsi plan, but it continued thereafter, both under the Mubarak regime and through various regimes.” Given that Hamas used the Hall to bring weapons from Egypt to Gaza most lately during Sisi’s administration, the horizontal mention of “other systems” is likely to make reference to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government, which has been in electricity since 2014.
In addition, Bibi made it clear that Hamas cannot smuggle the remaining captives out of Gaza because of Jewish control of the Corridor. Netanyahu stated that he thinks Hamas may bring victims to Sinai, then on to Iran or Yemen.
It’s still to be seen if the Biden administration may put such great pressure on Israel to back down on the Hall. However, Netanyahu is right in wanting to keep Jewish control over it based on logic.
