Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reversed a key concession made by Israel during ceasefire negotiations, CNN reported Friday, citing an Israeli source familiar with the talks.
The source said that Israel had previously agreed to allow Palestinians to have unrestricted access to north Gaza during any potential ceasefire. But last week, Netanyahu told his negotiators to add the condition that armed men aren’t allowed to enter the north.
Netanyahu included a similar condition in a list of “non-negotiable” demands he issued last Sunday. “There will be no return of thousands of armed terrorists to the northern Gaza Strip,” he said.
The CNN report said Netanyahu’s new demand could potentially upend the negotiations. The Israeli leader has made other demands aimed at sabotaging the chances of the deal.
In his list of demands last Sunday, Netanyahu said any deal must prevent “smuggling of weapons to Hamas from Egypt to the Gaza border.” Axios reported that Egypt had agreed to build an “underground wall” to prevent arms smuggling through its border with Gaza, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, and the US agreed to fund it.
But after that breakthrough, Netanyahu demanded Israel maintain control of the Philadelphi Corridor. “We will not allow the smuggling of weapons to Hamas from Egypt, first and foremost through Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah Crossing,” he said.
Netanyahu also continues to insist that any deal must allow him to restart the genocidal war, a condition that’s supported by Mossad chief David Barnea, who has been leading the negotiations.
“Without the clauses Prime Minister Netanyahu insists on, we will not be able to renew the war, and without that, we will not win or retrieve all the hostages. This is what is necessary for the benefit of the State of Israel,” Barnea said at an Israeli Security Cabinet meeting on Thursday.