Netanyahu holding line against pressure from US, Iran, and IDF

Israel Defense Forces can “raid” Hamas positions as necessary in the event that Israel agrees to withdraw from Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal to release hostages held by Hamas, according to the top IDF officer.

“We are preparing for all scenarios that the political level may decide,” IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi said Wednesday during a meeting with IDF commanders. “If they decide that we stay in the Philadelphi Corridor, we will know how to stay there and stay strong. If they decide that we monitor and raid every time we have an indication, we will know how to do that.”

If those remarks appear to offer Israeli officials some room to maneuver when they arrive in Qatar for a high-stakes round of indirect talks with Hamas, it’s a gesture that runs contrary to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s negotiating position.

The general’s statement amounts to a reassurance that Israel can tolerate yielding to a key demand of Hamas — Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor could thwart Hamas operations to smuggle supplies and weapons through the Egyptian border with Gaza — in a dialogue haunted by the threat of an expanded conflict between Israel, Iran, and Tehran’s largest terrorist proxy, the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

“The meeting tomorrow is very important, it needs to bring a solution,” Ambassador Jack Lew, who leads the U.S. Embassy in Israel, told reporters Wednesday. “We don’t know how many more opportunities we will have to reunite hostages with their families and have a doorway to stability in the area.”

The impending dialogue in Doha, the latest in a protracted series of talks over the last several months, has taken on additional significance in the weeks since the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was traveling in Iran at the time of his death. Iranian officials have pledged to retaliate, but the regime also has signaled that they might back away from that promise if Israel and Hamas finalize a ceasefire. 

“Iran is a country that has a policy of responding through a calculated and impactful strike,” an Iran-backed Iraqi militia leader, Ali al Asadi, said Wednesday in remarks promoted by Iranian state media. “The Iranian response will be proportionate to the aggression as it occurred on its territory, and therefore it will respond in the same way and in the same place.”

Iran has been expected to launch a direct military response, building on the missile and drone barrage that Iranian forces fired at Israel in April — a bombardment that marked the first Iranian attack on Israel that was launched directly from Iranian territory, rather than conducted through a proxy. That strike was largely ineffective, as the U.S. forces led a multi-national coalition in intercepting most of the ordnance, but President Joe Biden’s administration has been bracing for “a significant set of attacks,” perhaps on a larger scale than the April attempt.

“We obviously don’t want to see Israel have to defend itself against another onslaught, like they did in April,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday. “But, if that’s what comes at them, we will continue to help them defend themselves.”

Yet, some Iranian officials at least seem anxious about the prospect of another exchange of blows with Israel, according to reports that raise the possibility that Tehran is using the threat of retaliation to strengthen Hamas’ negotiating position.

“All else equal, the Islamic Republic is keen to respond,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior fellow Behnam Ben Taleblu told the Washington Examiner. “But the Islamic Republic also is keen not to paint itself into a corner. … The Islamic Republic might try to threaten an attack, to foist the handcuffs of a ceasefire from America onto Israel and then be able to claim that they are the champions and defenders of Gaza.

That threat has been compounded by Hezbollah’s promise to retaliate for the assassination of a Hezbollah commander who was killed in Beirut. That Israeli strike came in the wake of a Hezbollah artillery barrage that hit a soccer field in the Golan Heights, leaving 12 children dead. The attack was a bloody demonstration of the risks of the tensions in northern Israel, which tens of thousands of Israelis have been forced to evacuate due to a persistent series of strikes launched by Hezbollah in solidarity with Hamas forces in Gaza.

“There are no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay,” U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein said Wednesday during a trip to Beirut. “The deal would also help enable a diplomatic resolution here in Lebanon and that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war…We have to take advantage of this window for diplomatic action and diplomatic solutions. That time is now.”

Hamas leaders, for their part, renewed their demand that the ceasefire include a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, including along the Philadelphi Corridor.

“We have informed the mediators that … any meeting should be based on talking about implementation mechanisms and setting deadlines rather than negotiating something new,” Hamas official Osama Hamdan told the Associated Press. “Otherwise, Hamas finds no reason to participate.”

Netanyahu, for his part, repudiated Halevi’s offer of flexibility. “Prime Minister Netanyahu firmly stands by the principle that the IDF will physically remain in the Philadelphia Corridor,” an Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post.