Photographed pages and the content of a document said to be the amended hostage release-ceasefire deal proposal submitted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 27 were published by the Ynet news site (Hebrew link) on Tuesday. The published material — which includes maps, lists of names of hostages, snippets of the English text and Hebrew translations of text — spell out for the first time the differences between the May 27 Israeli proposal revealed by US President Joe Biden and the changes made by the premier two months later, including the demand for a permanent Israeli presence along the Philadelphi Corridor.
On July 7, Netanyahu presented Israel’s hostage negotiating team with a list of what he said were four nonnegotiable demands that must be met in order for Israel to move ahead with the US-backed proposal. Included among the demands was the stipulation that Israel must remain in control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the Gaza-Egypt border, as well as the Netzarim Corridor and the Rafah border crossing.
While the premier has continued to insist that he did not add anything to the hostage deal proposal, and simply clarified the stipulations that had already been laid out, the stipulation did not feature in the May 27 proposal, but, according to Ynet, is present in the amended version, known as the “clarification document” but dubbed the “Netanyahu Outline.”
Withdrawal from urban areas in the Gaza Strip
The May 27 proposal states that by the seventh day of the first phase of the deal, “Israeli forces will completely withdraw from Rasheed Street eastwards to Salah ad-Din Street, and the complete dismantling of military sites and installations in the area, the commencement of return of internally displaced to their place of residence (without carrying arms while returning), the freedom of movement of the population in all areas of the Gaza strip.”
It further adds that by the 22nd day of the 42-day initial phase, Israeli forces must “withdraw from the central Gaza strip (especially Netzarim axis and Kuwait roundabout axis) eastwards of Salah ad-Din Street to an area along the border, the complete dismantling of military sites and installations, the continuation of return of internally displaced to their place of residence (without carrying arms while returning) in northern Gaza Strip, and the freedom movement of the population in all areas of the Gaza Strip.” READ MORE
