Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefed the foreign media, in English, on Wednesday, bringing maps to show Israel’s small size relative to the Middle East, and Gaza’s proximity to major Israeli cities.
The briefing was a recapitulation of the briefing that Netanyahu delivered, mostly in Hebrew, earlier in the week. But it featured more maps, plus photographs of tunnels Israel discovered under the Philadelphi Corridor, the road under the Gaza-Egypt border.
The prime minister reiterated his argument from earlier in the week that Israel needed to control the Philadelphi Corridor to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Gaza — and from smuggling hostages out of Gaza.
Netanyahu also included an English translation of an Arabic document that laid out a strategy of psychological warfare against Israel, including the use of both internal and external pressure on Israel to give up the war.
Reporters clashed with the prime minister, asking hard-hitting questions, including questions passed along by the families of hostages.
Asked about the suffering of Palestinian civilians, Netanyahu noted the strenuous efforts Israel had taken to deliver aid, including polio vaccines, as well as the measures taken by the Israeli military to protect civilians that Hamas had placed in harm’s way.
In response to a question from the BBC about whether Netanyahu had, as mediators claimed, offered to withdraw troops from the Philadelphi Corridor, he clarified that he had offered to reduce the number of troops in the first phase of a potential hostage deal. He added that in a long-term ceasefire, there had to be guarantees that the Gaza-Egypt border would not be penetrable.
“Somebody has to be there,” he said, adding that if there were to be an alternative to IDF control of the corridor, Israel would have to be satisfied that they would control the border, not just “on paper.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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