Netanyahu chastised for Philadelphi Corridor speech, West Bank annexation map

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has doubled down on maintaining Israeli control of Gaza's Philadelphi Corridor in a speech on Monday sparking accusations of ethnic cleansing and a deliberate attempt to derail ceasefire talks.

In his remarks, Netanyahu framed Israeli control over the corridor - which spans the Gaza-Egypt border - in existential terms and insisted that control over the territory is essential to winning the war.

He set out Israel's war goals: destroying Hamas, bringing Israeli captives home, securing Gaza against further attacks, and returning Israeli citizens to their homes in the north.

"Three of those war goals go through one place," he said.

"The Philadelphi Corridor. That is Hamas's pipeline for oxygen and rearmament," he proclaimed, adding that Iran and its proxies - which he labelled the "axis of evil" - need the corridor to threaten Israel.

"This corridor is different from all other places - it is central, it determines all of our future."

He also doubled down on a military solution to bringing Israeli captives in Gaza home, claiming that Israel's invasion of Rafah, and control over the corridor had made Hamas re-enter negotiations.

The speech came after major demonstrations and strike action nationwide in Israel on Monday to pressure the government to accept a deal following the discovery of six Israeli captives allegedly killed by Hamas.

During his speech, Netanyahu said he asked for "forgiveness" for not bringing them back alive.

'Netanyahu not interested in freeing hostages'

Netanyahu's speech and his historical insistence on retaining the Philadelphi Corridor and bringing Israeli captives home through military operations have garnered a cocktail of scathing criticism within Israel and internationally.

Israeli control over Philadelphi Corridor has become a sticking point for negotiations, with Hamas demanding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the strip and Cairo stating that any military presence in the border territory breaches the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel.

Prior to the speech, comments leaked to the Israeli press revealed that during a cabinet meeting, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called Netanyahu's insistence on control over the corridor, at the expense of Israeli captives, a "moral disgrace",

Israeli opposition politician Yair Lapid described the speech as "political spin" and labelled the corridor "the Ben Gvir-Smotrich Corridor" after the two far-right cabinet members who have threatened Netanyahu against a ceasefire agreement.

"This is his new trick to prevent the disintegration of his coalition. It is about politics and only politics," Sarah Leah Whiteson, executive director for Democracy in the Arab World Now (DAWN), said that Netanyahu was "not interested in a ceasefire or ending its mass slaughter of Palestinians".

"The only appropriate course of action for the US and other governments is to sanction and suspend weapons to Israel, as the UK today announced it will do, in compliance with domestic and international laws around the world," she said.

Israel's war on Gaza, which has been ongoing for 11 months, has killed 40,786 people and wounded a further 94,224 others.

Its unrelenting war on the enclave has damaged and destroyed much of its infrastructure, caused severe shortages of essential goods and led to the spread of numerous diseases, including polio.

President Joe Biden, who backed a ceasefire agreement in July, weighed in on Monday, telling reporters that Netanyahu was not doing enough to bring home the captives.

A source familiar with the negotiations told CNN that Netanyahu "torpedoed everything in one speech".

The sentiment was echoed by former Israeli military spokesperson Peter Lerner who, reacting to the speech and its impact on the captives, wrote on X in Hebrew: "sealed their fate".

Senior Israel Analyst at the International Crisis Group Mairav Zonszien also posted on X following the speech, saying that Netanyahu's position meant "there is no longer inceptive [for Hamas] to keep the hostages alive".

In a statement issued on Monday the spokesperson for Hamas' armed wing the Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeidah, said that new instructions were given to captive guards in the event Israeli soldiers approach their locations.

"Netanyahu's insistence to free prisoners through military pressure, instead of sealing a deal means they will be returned to their families in shrouds. Their families must choose whether they want them dead or alive."

The Hostages Families Forum, which represents some of the families of those held captive, labelled Netanyahu's actions as "criminal negligence" and said that "he does not intend to return the hostage."

Israeli annexation, from the river to the sea

As well as chastising the speech, others noted that on the map Netanyahu presented the West Bank, which is currently illegally occupied by Israel, was shown to be annexed.

This was noted by Zonszein, who posted on X saying: "This speech will go down in history as Netanyahu's open admission to that world that Israel that Israel will remain between the river and the sea indefinitely, as long as he rules."

The UN's Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, said: "People in France, Germany, the US, freak out when it [from the river to the sea] is chanted by youths in solidarity with a people who's been genocided. When it is presented as a political plan by the man wanted by the ICC Prosecutor as an international criminal, not a peep."

Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Hussam Zomlot said on X that Netanyahu was "showing that Israel's aim is to erase the Palestinian people and take the rest of our land!"

The Israeli Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman, was quoted by Israel's Channel 7 as saying during Sunday's cabinet meeting that: "This is not just the Philadelphi Axis. We are on the path to inherit the land. Beyond the fact that this is the only way we will be blessed and successful - let them know in Jenin and Nablus and everywhere - we want our land back."

Israeli pro-peace organisation Peace Now called the government "messianic" and said that "this map from tonight's propaganda conference, along with the current reality, makes it undeniable."