A nine-mile desert stretch of fortified fence is snagging a Gaza hostage-release deal.
On that, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his critics agree — but not on who’s to blame.
Netanyahu insists on keeping troops at the border between the Palestinian enclave and Egypt despite his defense minister arguing that it can and should be vacated to help bring about a cease-fire with Hamas.
“The Axis of Evil needs the Philadelphi axis,” Netanyahu asserted in a televised address, as demonstrations swept Israel over the slaying of six hostages who might have been saved by a timely truce. “For the same reason, we must control the Philadelphi axis.”
Also known as the Philadelphi corridor, the zone includes the Rafah crossing which, for almost 20 years, gave Gazans access to the Egyptian Sinai. It provided Hamas with a “windpipe” of smuggled weaponry, Netanyahu says, which Israel must now throttle so the Iranian-backed group never rearms.
Skeptical Israelis ask why their army took the corridor only eight months into the war — and how Netanyahu can be so distrustful of Egyptian border security even as he looks to Cairo to broker a cease-fire.
Many accuse him of stalling on a deal that could collapse his coalition government.
At the outset of the war, Netanyahu may have been more reluctant to antagonize Egypt as he tried to get it to open the border to Palestinian refugees. Later, US remonstration held up Israel’s seizure of Philadelphi.
His position puts him at odds with public opinion after hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested for a truce on Sunday. It may also intensify frictions with the US, which is pressing hard for a deal between Israel and Hamas.
President Joe Biden was blunt when asked by reporters yesterday if Netanyahu was doing enough to secure the hostages.
“No,” he replied.— Dan Williams