US says Gaza cease-fire proposal calls for partial removal of Israeli troops from Philadelphi Corridor

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - An Israeli proposal to end the war in the Gaza Strip included the withdrawal of Israeli forces from densely populated areas along a critical strip of land between Gaza and Egypt, the White House said Tuesday.

"The deal says that they have to remove IDF from all densely populated areas in phase one, that includes densely populated areas around or are adjacent to 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," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

He was using an acronym to refer to the Israeli military.

A Hamas official involved in cease-fire negotiations with Israel told Turkish Foreign Ministry officials Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is continuously "introducing new conditions," particularly regarding the "Philadelphi Corridor" and "the Rafah border crossing," which has led to repeated setbacks.

"Every time we go back to square one, and a new process starts," said the official, adding that Israel is not negotiating but imposing.

The Rafah border crossing sits within the Philadelphi Corridor, and is the sole crossing point between Gaza and Egypt.

Netanyahu has insisted publicly as recently as Sunday that he will not withdraw his forces from the wider Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow 9-mile (14-kilometer) strip that Israel agreed would be a demilitarized zone during its 2005 withdrawal from Gaza. That would enable Israel to maintain control over the Egypt-Gaza border.

Netanyahu sees the area as a “lifeline for Hamas,” ruling out any withdrawal of Israeli forces from the corridor, according to Israeli public broadcaster, KAN. Kirby said he would not "get into a debate with the prime minister, of what he said over the weekend about the Philadelphi Corridor."

"The deal itself, the proposal, including the bridging proposal that we started working with, you guys know this, I'm not telling you anything that isn't out there publicly, included the removal of the Israeli Defense Forces from all densely populated areas, and that includes those areas along that corridor," he said.

Netanyahu's insistence has led to a major split with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who said Israel’s control of the corridor is “an unnecessary constraint that we’ve placed on ourselves.”

“We will not live up to the war goals we set for ourselves,” he said during a security Cabinet meeting on Sunday. “The decision made Thursday was reached under the assumption that there is time, but if we want live hostages, there’s no time.”

The defense minister was alluding to a Thursday Cabinet vote in which all members, excluding Gallant, voted to maintain Israeli forces in the corridor.

Public anger against Netanyahu’s government has grown after the army said Sunday it had recovered the bodies of six hostages from southern Gaza.

In response, the country’s largest labor union, the Histadrut, called a one-day general strike to pressure the government to reach an immediate cease-fire and prisoner swap deal with Hamas.

Israel estimates that more than 100 hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, an unknown number of whom are believed to have already been killed.

For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and a cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter.

Kirby said the deaths of the six hostages "just underscores the sense of urgency that we have to have in order to get" a deal "to closure."

"We're working on a proposal that will secure the release of the remaining hostages, and will include massive and immediate relief for the people of Gaza, and also result in a stoppage of the fighting," he said. "Our team is still working on trying to get this to closure, to try to conclude a deal that achieves all those three things."