Uncertainty persists over US stand on Israel's Philadelphi Corridor control

Washington DC — The United States has said Israel had agreed to remove its military from densely populated areas along the Philadelphi Corridor [Saladin Axis] as part of truce-prisoner swap deal but refused to offer more details on who gets to control the corridor along the Palestine-Egypt border in besieged Gaza.

"The deal itself, the proposal, including the bridging proposal that we started working with…. included a removal of Israeli Defense Forces from all densely populated areas, and that includes those areas along that corridor. That's the proposal that that Israel had agreed to. We're going to continue to work on this as hard as we can," White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday in a briefing with reporters.

Kirby declined to clarify if US supports Israeli presence on the corridor, a tiny stretch of land about 14km in length and 100 metres wide, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to occupy at all costs — a plan Hamas and neighbouring Egypt reject.

Netanyahu has demanded control of Philadelphi Corridor in any ceasefire deal, stalling negotiations for a ceasefire with Hamas and the release of Israel hostages held by the Palestinian group.

On Monday, Netanyahu signalled he will not compromise.

"This is the oxygen of Hamas," he said, adding: "No one is more committed to freeing the hostages than me … No one will preach to me on this issue."

Netanyahu made his comments after the death of six Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered by Israeli troops over the weekend.

Kirby on Tuesday said it underscored the urgency to get a ceasefire deal in Gaza and the release of the remaining captives.

"Clearly what happened over the weekend underscores how important it is to get this done as quickly as possible," he said, while blaming Hamas for the deaths of hostages.

Israeli claims

Pressed by reporters that the last proposal, including the map that the US had approved, included the deployment of the Israeli military along the Philadelphi Corridor, Kirby refused to clarify US position, saying instead: "The Philadelphi Corridor, or where it intersects with those densely populated areas. That's what the proposal says. That's the proposal that was put forth at the end of May."

"I'm not going to get into amendments one way or the another, that have subsequently been discussed… not going to negotiate in this public, in this in public, one way or the other."

Kirby said the US President Joe Biden has, in numerous conversations with Netanyahu, as well as counterparts in Qatar and Egypt, stressed the importance of "doing everything" to conclude the proposal that Kirby insisted "was an Israeli proposal agreed to in the end of May."

Prodded continuously by journalists if US supports military presence of Israel at or near the corridor "that aren't heavily populated," Kirby said, "I think I could point you to what the Israelis have said publicly about their belief in the need to have some security along that corridor."

He said, "The proposal says that they have to remove themselves to the east from densely populated areas and that core essential element of the proposal has not changed. But the Israelis have said publicly that they believe that even in so doing, that they would need some security along that corridor."