Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resisted growing pressure on Monday, affirming that his military must retain control of the region in any cease-fire agreement to conclude the conflict in Gaza.
By Chantal Da Silva and Charlene Gubash
It's a narrow sliver of land, but it has emerged as one of the biggest points of contention between Israel and Hamas.
The so-called Philadelphi corridor has emerged as a critical factor holding up a cease-fire deal that would end the monthslong war in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of hostages still held in the enclave.
The killing of six hostages raised outrage and increased pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with US President Joe Biden saying on Monday that he was not doing enough to secure a deal. But Netanyahu appeared to signal he would refuse to give in to demands to withdraw troops from the sector in the face of mass protests and splits in his government.
What is the Philadelphi corridor, and why does it matter?
What is the Philadelphi corridor?
The narrow strip of land called the Philadelphi corridor, also known as the Salah al-Din axis, is almost 9 miles in length and about 100 yards wide, running down the Gaza side of the coastal enclave's border with Egypt.
It includes the key Rafah border crossing, long seen as a lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza for allowing vital supplies of food, medicine, and other aid to enter the strip, while enabling the movement of Palestinians in and out of the enclave under a 17-year blockade imposed by Israel.
This corridor was then formed as a sort of buffer zone after the 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel as part of efforts by the country to regularize traffic into and out of Gaza stemming arms smuggling between the Egyptian Sinai and the Palestinian enclave.
Location of key Gaza buffer zone
The Philadelphi Corridor extends along Gaza's southern border and features two crucial crossing points.
Until Israel's unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005, the area had fallen under Israeli control. Before its withdrawal, however, Israel and Egypt signed a September 2005 Philadelphi Accord that allowed Egypt to send hundreds of border guards to patrol the borders of the corridor.
In May, the Israeli military announced it had established "tactical control" over the corridor after launching a widely condemned offensive on the crowded city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Israeli officials said troops had discovered some 150 tunnels along the corridor believed to have been used by Hamas to smuggle weapons and supplies into the enclave, though they said it wasn't clear if the tunnels had been used since Oct. 7.
What's the disagreement?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demanded that Israel retain its military presence in the southern Gaza border area to prevent Hamas from using the corridor as part of any truce deal.
But Hamas has refused to accept any continued Israeli presence there, and negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya told Al Jazeera in an interview Sunday that unless Israeli forces pull out of the area, "there is no agreement."
Only in the last week has the Philadelphi corridor taken center stage in cease-fire negotiations, which have seen little progress despite a fresh push from the United States.
Washington has blamed Hamas publicly, but US and foreign officials told NBC News that new conditions set by Netanyahu also have stood in the way of progress, including insistence on control of Gaza's southern border with Egypt.
Two people briefed on the negotiations said Biden may offer a final "take it or leave it" deal to Israel and Hamas as early as this week.
Still, amidst growing diplomatic pressure, coupled with unrest at home, Netanyahu has refused to budge.
Describing the Philadelphi corridor as Hamas' "lifeline," the Israeli leader called the strip "central and determines our entire future" in a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday.
"The axis of evil needs the Philadelphi corridor — we need to hold it," he said, at one point pointing to a map that seemed to erase the existence of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu argued that if Israel pulled troops out of the corridor, international pressure would make it hard to return.
Egypt, a central facilitator of the negotiations, summarily rejected Netanyahu's statements outright on Monday and dismissed his speech as an attempt to divert "the attention of Israeli public opinion" and prevent a deal.
Political spin?
The insistence of Netanyahu to retain control of the Philadelphi corridor at the expense of a cease-fire deal in exchange for the hostages has also pitted him against senior members of his own government.
Defense Minister Yoav called Sunday for Israel's security Cabinet to convene and reverse the decision to stick to the demand.
"It's too late for those abductees who were murdered in cold blood," Gallant wrote in a post on X. "The abductees who still remain in the captivity of Hamas must be returned home."
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, too, dismissed Netanyahu's position as "baseless political spin" that was "disconnected from reality."
"Israel evacuated the Philadelphi Route 19 years ago," he said Monday. "Netanyahu voted in favor of it both in the government and in the Knesset. For 15 of those years, Netanyahu was the Prime Minister and never thought of reoccupying the Philadelphi Route."
But Kobi Michael, a senior researcher with the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, disagreed. He told NBC News that control of the corridor was key to guaranteeing Israel's future security.
"We can't allow ourselves to go back to the reality which we encountered on Oct. 7," he said.
Still, Michael, also a member of the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy, said he believed any continued military presence in the Philadelphi corridor had to come with a clear timeline for troops to eventually withdraw.
He said he believed this could be accomplished within the span of a year.
"We are very experienced in building the barriers," Michael said. "It's not so complicated."
Lapid added that he believed Netanyahu was playing to the interests of the hard-line members of the fractious coalition that has kept him in office.
Gershon Baskin, an Israeli hostage negotiator, made a similar estimation: Netanyahu was "sacrificing the hostages on an altar of his own personal political survival.".