Brushing aside pleas from allies and the demands of Israeli protesters for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in exchange for the release of hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday vowed to maintain Israeli control along the border between Egypt and Gaza, a contentious plan that appeared to dim, if not dash, prospects for a truce.

In his first news conference since the bodies of six slain hostages were recovered over the weekend, Netanyahu told reporters on Monday night that, to ensure its security, Israel needed to assert control over the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, calling it the lifeline of Hamas.

Hamas has said Israeli control of the corridor is a non-starter in negotiations for a truce, demanding instead a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

“If we leave, there will be enormous diplomatic pressure upon us from the whole world not to return,” Netanyahu said of the corridor, as a large crowd protested near his private residence in Jerusalem on Monday night.

Netanyahu made the comments a day after the Israeli military announced that the six hostages had been found dead in a tunnel underneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The discovery devastated Israelis and spurred the mass protests Sunday and a widespread work stoppage by the country’s largest labour union.

But despite the national grief, the strike on Monday was a mixed success, and subsequent protests throughout the day were relatively muted, revealing a country deeply divided over how to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Many Israelis support a ceasefire deal to bring home the hostages. But others, particularly on the right, support Netanyahu’s security conditions and reject any agreement with Hamas.

Netanyahu suggested on Monday that the pursuit and killing of Hamas militants in Gaza would go on unabated. “We are crushing Hamas,” he said, adding, “But we still need to take away its ability to rule” in Gaza.

Hamas, he said, “would pay a heavy price” for the deaths of the six hostages".

New York Times News Service