The Israel Defense Forces will stay on Gaza’s border with Egypt to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its strength by smuggling in arms, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday night. He also vowed to exact a “very heavy price” from the terrorist group for its recent execution of six captives.
“We are in the midst of an existential war against Iran’s axis of evil, and the first condition of victory is unity among us,” the Israeli leader said in an address to the nation. “We must stand united against a brutal enemy seeking to destroy us all—left or right, religious or secular, Jews and non-Jews. We have seen that not only on October 7, but throughout the war.”
Netanyahu said that, in conversations with the families of hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, Carmel Gat and IDF Master Sgt. Ori Danino—who were executed by Hamas terrorists last week and whose bodies were retrieved for burial in the Jewish state over the weekend—he asked for forgiveness that Israel’s government and security forces failed to bring them back home alive.
“We were very close, but we were not able to do so,” Netanyahu said, warning that Hamas “will pay a very heavy price” for the six murders.
The premier continued by saying that all of the government’s war goals in the Gaza Strip, including the return of the 101 remaining hostages, “go through one gate, the Philadelphi Corridor. It’s the oxygen of Hamas.
“The axis of evil needs the Philadelphi Corridor; for this reason, we need the Philadelphi Corridor,” Netanyahu said, using the IDF’s name for the 8.5-mile-long belt of land along Gaza’s border with Sinai. “This corridor determines our entire future.”
If Israel gives up control of the border area, as Hamas has demanded during the ongoing hostages-for-ceasefire talks, the remaining captives could be smuggled out to Egypt and from there to Iran or Yemen, he said.
The premier noted during his address that Israel controlled all other entry points to the Gaza Strip, by land and by sea, and that leaving the Sinai border open since the 2005 disengagement was what had enabled Hamas to arm its forces and fight three previous wars against Israel.
Pivoting to the U.S.-brokered ceasefire negotiations, Netanyahu noted that Hamas did not budge for months. “The first crack came when we went into Rafah and took over the Philadelphi Corridor, when we took over the passage; that’s when they started talking differently,” he said.
“As soon as they think there is weakness on our side, or pressure, they’ll go right back,” warned the premier, adding that he was “absolutely shocked” that some Cabinet members, most notably Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, have suggested that Israel leave the Philadelphi Corridor.
Pointing to a document that was reportedly discovered by forces in a Gaza tunnel earlier this year, he said that shifting all blame towards Netanyahu was a key component of Hamas’s psychological warfare.
“We have agreed to the outline presented by President Biden on May 31; we have agreed to what they called the final bridging proposal on August 18, but Hamas said no to the first and no to the second,” the prime minister noted, in an apparent reference to Monday’s criticism from the American president.
Netanyahu concluded, “Together we stand, together we fight, and together, with God’s help, we will overcome.”
One hundred and one hostages—alive and dead—are still held captive in Gaza after more than 300 days. Off-and-on negotiations have continued for months with the United States, Egypt and Qatar acting as mediators.