Destroyed and damaged buildings in the Gaza Strip, February 25, 2025. Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
Israel declared it won’t withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egypt-Gaza border, putting the continuation of the ceasefire with Hamas in serious doubt as the terror group insists on a full withdrawal as a condition to release all the hostages.
“We will not leave the Philadelphi Corridor. We will not allow Hamas murderers to roam around with pickup trucks and guns on our borders again, and we will not allow them to gain strength from smuggling again,” an Israeli official told media outlets during a briefing.
Speaking at a regional council conference on Thursday morning, Defense Minister Katz said the Philadelphi Corridor “will remain a buffer zone just like in Lebanon and Syria. I saw with my own eyes quite a few tunnels penetrating Philadelphi, some of them were closed – and some were open.”
Israel was supposed to begin withdrawing from the corridor on Saturday, completing the withdrawal by March 9. Now it appears that Israel is backing out of that commitment as it attempts to maintain a strategically important position if hostilities were to resume.
Later on Thursday, another official stated that Israel had sent a delegation to Cairo, Egypt, to negotiate a possible extension of the ceasefire’s current, first phase.
Israel intends to achieve the release of three more live hostages this Saturday, in exchange for more humanitarian aid and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The first phase of the hostage-ceasefire agreement officially came to an end with Wednesday’s return of the bodies of the final four hostages from the list given by Hamas to Israel for release in the first round.
According to the terms of the original ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, negotiations for the second phase should have begun on Feb. 16.
However, Israel delayed sending a negotiation team, citing recurring ceasefire violations by Hamas, in addition to conducting humiliating release ceremonies.
On Thursday, Katz said the Israeli government had information proving that Hamas had planned to attack Israeli soldiers and communities during the ceasefire.
At the same time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under pressure from members of his coalition to not proceed with the second phase.
Negotiations for phase 2 were supposed to include discussions about a permanent ceasefire and would have also required Israel to fully withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip.
Instead, Netanyahu has begun to speak about extending the first stage of the ceasefire to include more hostages, such as Israeli fathers Omri Miran, David Cunio, and Elkana Bohbot.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, recently discussed the possibility of extending the first phase, after several meetings with Netanyahu advisor, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
Witkoff was expected to visit the Middle East as part of a push to begin phase 2 negotiations. However, he announced he would delay the trip, conditioning it upon the progress in negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
On Tuesday, Witkoff said Israel is expected to send a delegation to either Doha, Qatar or Cairo in the coming days to begin phase 2 negotiations.
“If these talks go well, I might be going to the region on Sunday,” Witkoff said during remarks at an American Jewish Committee event in Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, Hamas also expressed a willingness to either extend the first phase of the ceasefire or move immediately into the second phase.
Hamas Spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanu told Saudi newspaper Al-Arabiya that the terror group is willing to extend the first phase of the ceasefire or to consolidate the two stages of the agreement according to the organization’s “red lines.”
Israeli analysts believe that Hamas’ demands for freeing additional hostages as part of an extension of the first phase will likely be much higher.
The Israeli government is reportedly seeking to extend the deal without making strategic concessions, which could undermine its ability to prevent Hamas from rebuilding or to resume fighting if the ceasefire agreement collapses.
