During a 15-minute press conference for foreign media in Tel Aviv last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stunned the audience when he claimed that Hamas was planning to smuggle prisoners out of Gaza using the hotly contested Philadelphia Corridor.

Netanyahu said, “If we leave the Philadelphia corridor, it will be impossible to prevent Hamas not only from smuggling weapons, but also from smuggling hostages,” he said.

What is the background to this claim?

Intelligence sources, according to Israeli media, told the Joint Planning Committee that Sinwar's plan was to smuggle himself and the remaining Hamas leaders along with the Israeli prisoners through the Philadelphia Corridor to Sinai and from there to Iran.

This was revealed during the interrogation of a senior Hamas official who was arrested, as well as through information obtained from documents seized on Thursday, August 29, the day the bodies of the six prisoners who were killed were recovered.

The sources reported that Hamas had insisted for months on controlling the corridor, while Israel strongly resisted. This is why no deal or settlement has been agreed upon in the past eight months, despite the efforts of the United States, Egypt and Qatar.

The sources suggested that Sinwar realized that the war was over for his organization and that his chances of achieving military success were non-existent, despite his success in international propaganda. Sinwar sees only one way out, which is to save his life by abandoning the battlefield and fleeing Gaza. He did not insist on the withdrawal of IDF forces from the Netzarim crossing, as there is no possibility of smuggling or escaping from Gaza through this crossing.

Israeli sources considered that for Sinwar, the Philadelphia corridor turned out to be the only available option to achieve his plan, which Israeli security officials describe as cowardly.

However, the Israelis are not even considering withdrawing from Philadelphia, which Netanyahu describes as forbidden even at the cost of no agreement or more dead hostages.

Another reason for Israel's insistence on controlling Philadelphia is the killing of six prisoners a few days ago.

It is assumed within the security cabinet and the army that surrendering to Sinwar's demands regarding Philadelphia will be seen as weakness and a message to Hamas that killing prisoners is profitable, and that such a concession would lead to more demands and more concessions, thus strengthening Hamas. It puts Israel's security at risk.

At a stormy meeting in Israel this week to discuss the killing of the six kidnapped, most Cabinet members agreed that withdrawing from the Gaza Strip, including the Philadelphia Corridor, could restore rule by Hamas, which has proven over the past decade that its focus is not on Peace, but rather the elimination of Israel.

Netanyahu informed US President Joe Biden of this in a secret internal document on May 27 and again on August 16, when he responded to Hamas’ demands during the failed negotiations. This turned out to be a waste of time because Sinwar had already decided not to agree to any deal or settlement if he did not get full control of the Philadelphia corridor.

The Philadelphia Corridor was established upon the completion of Israel's withdrawal from Sinai in 1982, following the peace agreement with Egypt. It is a 14-kilometre-long dual carriageway extending across the southern edge of the Gaza Strip from Israel to the Mediterranean Sea, between Rafah in the Gaza Strip and Sinai in Egypt.