Benjamin Netanyahu insists on his positions, despite her pressures Biden administrationbut also of a large part of Israeli public opinion, for an agreement with Hamas

Defending himself against accusations of blocking a hostage deal on Monday night, the Israeli prime minister strongly backed what he said was a “strategic imperative” to keep Israeli troops stationed along the so-called Philadelphia Corridor, along of Gaza’s border with Egypt.

Speaking to reporters during a press conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu insisted the 14km strip of land is essential for Israel to achieve its war aims in the Middle East.

If the IDF withdrew even for the first phase of the deal, in an effort to secure the release of many hostages alive, it could never return, he claimed, and so Hamas could rearm, revive, and carry out many more massacres like that of October 7th.

He rejected the claim that the six hostages killed by Hamas in Gaza last week were killed because his terms had prevented a deal. “We couldn’t get them out. We were very close. It’s terrible,” he said. “But it didn’t happen because of that decision (for the Philadelphia corridor). It happened, first of all, because (Hamas) don’t want a deal,” he said. “I’m looking for any means … to bring them home,” he said of the hostages.

Hamas’ supply of “oxygen”.

Netanyahu stated that Israel’s war goals are to “destroy Hamas, bring back all our hostages, ensure that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel, and return the residents of the northern border safely to their territories “, and argued that “three of these war objectives they pass through one place: the Philadelphia Corridor. This is Hamas’ channel for oxygen and rearmament.”

Displaying a map of Israel and Gaza, Netanyahu noted that “the axis of evil needs the Philadelphia Corridor,” referring to Iran and its “satellites,” arguing that this is precisely why Israel “must control him’ and ‘make permanent the fact that we are there’.

The importance of Israeli control of the runway, he said, is “to make sure we don’t have another October 7 and another October 7 and another October 7, as Hamas has promised.”

Criticizing Egypt for failing to secure the border, Netanyahu insisted he had called on then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to maintain control of the corridor two decades ago.

He added that he later fought against the military reinforcement of Hamas during several governments, but was hampered by the lack of international and domestic legitimacy to recapture Gaza.

Netanyahu apologized from the families of the six Israeli hostages recently found dead in a Hamas tunnel. “We agreed to the formula presented by President Biden on May 31st,” he continued. “We agreed to what they called a “final bridge proposal” on August 16. Hamas rejected the first. Hamas rejects the second.”