Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes new pressure on Gaza and hostages: ‘No one will lecture me’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday pushed back against a new wave of pressure to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza after hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested and went on strike and US President Joe Biden said more must be done after nearly 11 months of fighting.

In his first public speech since Sunday’s protests that showed many Israelis angry at the discovery of six more dead hostages, Netanyahu said he would continue to insist on a demand that has become a major sticking point in the negotiations – maintaining Israeli control over the Philadelphia Corridor, a narrow strip along the Gaza-Egypt border where Israel says Hamas smuggles weapons into Gaza. Egypt and Hamas deny this.

Mr Netanyahu called the corridor essential to preventing Hamas from rearming through tunnels. “This is Hamas’ oxygen,” he said.

And he added: “No one is more committed than me to the release of the hostages. (…) No one will lecture me on this issue.”

SEE ALSO: Heartbroken at funeral of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin

Israelis took to the streets Sunday night in anger and mourning, in what appeared to be the largest demonstration since the war began. Families and many in the public blamed Netanyahu, saying the hostages could have been freed alive through a deal with Hamas. A rare general strike was held across the country Monday.

On Monday night, several thousand protesters gathered outside Netanyahu’s private residence in central Jerusalem, chanting “Tune in. Now!” and carrying coffins draped in the Israeli flag. Scuffles broke out when police tore away the coffins, and several protesters were arrested. Thousands more marched outside Netanyahu’s Likud party in Tel Aviv, according to Israeli media.

Others, however, support Netanyahu’s desire to continue the campaign in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in the territory. Netanyahu says the attack will force the militants to yield to Israeli demands, potentially facilitate rescue operations and ultimately wipe out the group.

The United States, a key ally of the country, is impatient. Biden spoke to reporters as he arrived at the White House for a meeting in the Situation Room with the American mediation team in charge of the negotiations. Asked whether Netanyahu was doing enough, Biden replied: “No.”

He insisted that negotiators remained “very close” to a deal, adding: “Hope springs eternal.”

SEE ALSO: Rare strike unsettles Israel as Biden says Netanyahu not doing enough to reach Gaza deal

Hamas accuses Israel of prolonging months of negotiations by making new demands, including lasting Israeli control of the Philadelphia Corridor and a second corridor through Gaza. Hamas has offered to release all hostages in exchange for an end to the war, a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including senior activists — broadly the terms of the draft deal Biden proposed in July.

Mr Netanyahu has promised a “total victory” over Hamas and blamed it for the breakdown of the negotiations. On Monday, he said he was ready to implement the first phase of the ceasefire – a plan that would include the release of some hostages, a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops and the release of some prisoners held by Israel. But he rejected a full withdrawal from Gaza, saying he saw no other party capable of controlling Gaza’s borders.

Israeli media have reported deep differences between Netanyahu and senior security officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who believe the time has come for a ceasefire.

An official confirmed an altercation between Gallant and Netanyahu during a security cabinet meeting Thursday, where Netanyahu voted to maintain control of the Philadelphia corridor.

Gallant was the only vote against the proposal, saying Netanyahu was prioritizing border arrangements over the lives of the hostages. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting. Gallant on Sunday called on the security cabinet to reverse the decision.

Khalil al-Hayya, the Hamas official leading the negotiations, told Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera on Sunday evening that Netanyahu had deemed maintaining the Philadelphia corridor “more important” than freeing the hostages.

Al-Hayya also said Hamas had offered “great flexibility,” including reducing its demand for the release of 500 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for each captive Israeli soldier to 50, and 250 Palestinian prisoners or each Israeli civilian hostage to 30. He accused Israel of introducing new conditions, including increasing the number of prisoners who would be deported after their release and prohibiting the release of elderly or sick prisoners serving life sentences.

Israel said the six hostages found dead in Gaza were killed by Hamas shortly before Israeli forces entered the tunnel where they were being held.

The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, said in a statement Monday that it now has a policy of killing any hostages Israel tries to rescue. It said that after Israeli troops rescued four hostages in a deadly raid in June, it had given new orders to its fighters guarding the hostages on how to deal with them if Israeli troops approach. It added that Netanyahu’s insistence on using military pressure instead of reaching an agreement “will mean that they (the hostages) will return to their families in coffins.”

According to reports, three of the hostages killed were among those released in the first phase of Biden’s ceasefire proposal in July.

Thousands of people attended the funeral Monday of one of the six hostages, Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. He was one of the most famous, his parents having led a high-profile campaign for the release of the captives, met with Biden and Pope Francis and spoken at the Democratic National Convention last month.

The general strike, called by Israel’s largest union, the Histadrut, ended prematurely after a labor court accepted a government petition calling it politically motivated.

It was the first such strike since the start of the war, aimed at paralyzing or disrupting key sectors of the economy, including banking and health care. Some flights at Israel’s main Ben Gurion International Airport took off early or were slightly delayed.

“There is no need to punish the entire State of Israel because of what is happening, overall it is a victory for Hamas,” said passenger Amrani Yigal.

But in Jerusalem, resident Avi Lavi said: “I think it’s right, the time has come to get up and wake up, to do everything to get the hostages back alive.”

Municipalities in the center of the country, including Tel Aviv, participated in the operation. Others, including Jerusalem, did not.

Some 250 hostages were taken on October 7. More than a hundred were released during a ceasefire in November in exchange for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Eight of them were rescued by Israeli forces. Israeli troops mistakenly killed three Israelis who had managed to escape from captivity in December.

There are about 100 hostages remaining in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during their invasion of southern Israel on October 7. Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who did not specify how many were militants.

The war has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, often multiple times, and plunged the besieged territory into a humanitarian catastrophe, including sparking fresh fears of a polio outbreak.

Meanwhile, Israel continued its six-day raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. AP journalists saw bulldozers destroying roads. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli forces were blocking their ambulances from reaching the wounded.

Palestinians in a town near Jenin held a funeral for Ayman Abed, a 58-year-old man who was arrested the day before and died in Israeli custody. The Israeli military said he died of a “cardiac incident,” but did not provide details. Human rights groups have reported abuses against Palestinians in Israeli custody, and the military has confirmed the deaths of at least 36 Palestinians in its detention centers since October.

Israel says it killed 14 militants in Jenin and arrested 25 militants. Palestinian health officials say at least 29 people were killed, including five children.

Mohannad Hajj Hussein, a Jenin resident, said electricity and water had been cut off. “We are ready to live by candlelight and we will feed our children with our bodies and teach them resistance and determination on this land,” he said. “We will rebuild what the occupation destroyed and we will not kneel.”