Philadelphi corridor demand by Israel scuttles talks, risks captives, with Jon Elmer

All right, so resistance report for this week. Yeah, we're going to start in the south of the Gaza Strip as we usually do and we're going to go all the way to the north of the West Bank before we're done here. Um again, we're looking at this map a little bit wider Philadelphia corridor on the south along the border with Egypt that has become a centerpiece of the Israeli government's position on the ceasefire talks that we'll talk about. Uh Netzarim corridor also in the north cutting off uh Gaza City and the north uh where the Israelis are operating right now. And that is where the Israelis have been operating. As Nora said, the 98th division, which is the corridor and raid division, the raid division um that has been running around running amok in Gaza for the last uh five or six months. Um they were responsible that division was responsible for the Shifa Hospital massacre, uh mass graves, destruction of the hospital, killing of of patients in their hospital beds. Uh they then went from there to the Jabalia southern Jabalia refugee camp where they carried out the operation and got one of their uh soldiers taken in the tunnel that we all remember. Then they went to Shuja'iyya, smashed up Shuja'iyya, took a bunch of pretty serious hits from the resistance in Shuja'iyya as always for decades. Uh that continued on and then as Nora reported, they were in the Khan Yunis and uh southern middle camps area for about 3 weeks and they have withdrawn from there. Um so the battle space has changed and will probably for the coming uh week or two or some period of time will just be focused on the corridors. And this is I think part of the Israeli strategy. They sent the 98th division out to get uh rest and recuperation as they call it. And the commander said that we are leaving to return. So their plan is to continue to use this division um to carry out raids in areas that uh the Israeli military failed in in their original clearing operations. So, if we look at the map of the south here, um we're just going to focus on the Philadelphia corridor. Everything happened uh that we're going to talk about for the next 5 minutes or so all along the Philadelphia corridor there. As you can see, Tal al-Sultan has been the main area of fighting, but you can see that there's built-up areas all the way along that corridor. It's a populated area, and as part of the ceasefire agreements that were agreed to by the US and by Israel, um have them have the Israeli military pulling out of these population centers. That's something that is that they had agreed to, and the Americans even said yesterday that they expect the Israelis to uphold that. Let's look at some of the satellite imagery that we've got about the destruction. We show you what's happening on the ground, um but these two pictures here, the before and afters from November, you can see in the first one there here. If we hold on for a second, you can see a on the Egyptian side um pockmarks from bomb strikes on the Egyptian side. The Israelis were trying to cut off the Rafah crossing in the early stages of this war, if we remember before the ground operation. Um but you can see the built-up area um there. You can see the housing that goes right up to the border, and that's been the case. Um the buffer zone on that border is only in some places 100 m, but the Israelis are attempting to stretch it to 800 m as the next one will show you with the destruction here. If we go to the after, you can see uh that thin red line marks 800 m, and they it just don't even really have words for that. Just the erasure of civilian neighborhoods, refugee camps, um that tens of thousands of people live in, um you know, 10,000 buildings destroyed just in that Rafah area alone. It's brutal. Let's look at the more focused in ones here and this next one of Tel Sultan. So, this is where the fighting's been right on the edge most recently. Been bringing you the resistance reports from Tel Sultan and then just completely erased. They're doing that with air strikes, they're doing it with artillery, they're doing it with tank shells, and they're doing it with anti-tank mines that they rig up. And all of this is happening uh each day as Nour reported also, 40 air strikes. The Israeli military claims 40 air strikes a day. They're killing 50 people a day. That doesn't include artillery, that's just air strikes. Um and they're still attacking schools as Nour pointed out because their uh justification for that is that um there's nominal government activity being set up in those schools. In other words, uh you know, uh municipal services, uh health care, education, and so those are being targeted. So, um we can move on to the next one here because uh Netanyahu really doubled down on this this week. Earlier um earlier last week a Bedouin security guard who was a kibbutz a kibbutz security guard was released in Rafa. He walked out uh out of a tunnel, surprised the Israeli military. Um he's from an unrecognized village slated for demolition um and the Palestinian resistance pretty clearly let him go. The Israelis were not fighting in tunnels at the time. They just happened upon him um and so he was released by the resistance. And because of that, the Israelis went into the tunnel that he came out and found um on the weekend found six captives, mostly soldiers, possibly all soldiers, um that the Israelis immediately said had been executed. And they said that their forensics uh labs had said that they were killed either Thursday or Friday, so between 48 hours uh and 72 hours before they were found. The Israeli military said that they were specifically said they were not operating in the tunnels. They didn't find them through a raid in the tunnels. They're digging up the tunnels on the edge of the Philadelphia corridor and they happened upon the Bedouin who was released and then they found the bodies of these six other soldiers. And so, according to army radio, commander speaking to army radio, these Israeli military said the opposite of that they were operating in the tunnels. They said they were moving slowly above the ground so that Qassam would move the captives. So, that gives you an idea of where the Israelis are coming from on on this situation. They're not down in the tunnels trying to find their people. They found their people by accident and then because of that, they went into a tunnel right beside it and found the bodies of six of their soldiers who were killed. And as we've seen, it tipped off a bit of a general strike in Israel and did something that finding other dead bodies hasn't done or killing 50,000 people and destroying the healthcare system, the education system, causing polio, all of the horrors in Gaza didn't do, but these six captives being killed, possibly executed, they it got a reaction and this is Netanyahu's first time addressing the press since early in the summer and he stands standing here pointing to the Philadelphia corridor and he's saying that this is an existential war, that the corridor is central to our entire future, he says of the state of Israel. He says the goals of the war all run through the corridor. It's the oxygen for Hamas, he's saying and a lot of this is actually not true that just from my reporting and what you guys have been watching me report for the last 11 months, we haven't actually seen all that much imported weaponry. The main storyline of the resistance in Gaza has been indigenous manufacturing of this weaponry, and that will continue with all the unexploded ordinance and the bombs that can be repurposed as the metals in the bombs could be repurposed, and then the explosives inside could be repurposed. This battle isn't dependent on smuggling weapons. And we've seen that, we've observed it for many months now, but in in the face of these six soldiers being executed, apparently executed, Netanyahu decided to double down on the Philadelphia Corridor and said essentially gave this hour-long speech where he said that October 7th gave Israel international legitimacy that it will never have again. And as soon as they leave in the first stage of the agreement that Israel agreed to, their troops would pull back eastward out of the population centers. And so he's going against that, and that's why Hamas hasn't been negotiating in these last couple rounds of negotiations because Netanyahu changed the goalposts and is creating a situation where he's forcing Hamas to accept a permanent occupation of Gaza, which is something that Hamas that no Palestinian leader should accept. And so the ceasefire talks are essentially um they're essentially a farce. They're they're done. Um and so maybe we have some communicating happening between Qassam and Netanyahu here, and that may be the link to those prisoners being killed. Um but yeah, Netanyahu's main point is we'll never get this chance to genocide again. Um they if we leave for four here he says it here. He says, "If we were given the choice if I were given the choice between the Philadelphia Corridor or retrieving our hostages, I would choose the Philadelphia Corridor." So, he's made a a really stark split here, and that's part of the reason that Israel is is reacting in a way on the streets that we haven't seen for the whole war and never saw for any treatment of Palestinians. Um, so yeah, let's take a look at these next couple here. These are So, this is um, uh, Abu Obaida saying that we affirm the price we affirm the price we will take in exchange for five or 10 living prisoners is the same price as we would have taken in exchange for all the prisoners if the enemy's bombing had not killed them. The Israelis believe 33 of their people are dead already. Back in the spring, Qassam put the number uh, closer to 70. Um, so it's unknown how many are still alive, but Qassam has been consistent with this principle that they're not going to kill all the hostages and end uh, the prisoner exchange agreements. Palestinian prisoners are going to be released from prison. And so, they made it very clear in this one. If we look at the next one, uh, he talks about uh, directly here the Nuseirat raid. Um, the Nuseirat raid was in June, early June, we'll remember that, where three captives who were living above ground with a in a family home, walking around market, um, you know, living not living in the tunnels, not and being treated very well, uh, were uh, rescued, quote unquote, by Israeli forces that killed 275 Palestinians and wounded 950 in one of the worst massacres, maybe the worst massacre, uh, of this war. And uh, Abu Obaida said at the time that uh, we say to everyone clearly that after the Nuseirat incident, new instructions were issued to the fighters assigned to guard the captives regarding how to deal with them in the event the occupation army approaches their detention. So, whether it's true or psychological operations that we're looking at here, Qassam is definitely not denying the uh doesn't appear to be denying the execution uh of these uh soldiers at at this point. Um And yeah, like I said, the uh the Israelis believe 33 are dead and Qassam has said more than 70 are dead uh already. In this next poster we'll look at here, lays it out pretty pretty straight. Uh there was some speculation over the course of the weekend uh what happened and what the facts of this were. Um and then Qassam released this poster on Monday that I guess is uh pretty clear message. The poster says, "Exchange deal equals freedom and life. Military pressure equals death and failure." Um and they released a text message from Abu Obaida, a written message from Abu Obaida, the spokesperson for Qassam on Monday, and he said, "Netanyahu and the occupation army alone bear full responsibility for the deaths of the captives as they deliberately obstructed any prisoner exchange deals for for narrow interests in addition to intentionally killing dozens of them through direct air strikes. We say to everyone clearly that after the Nuseirat incident, new instructions were issued to the fighters assigned to guard the captives regarding how to deal with them in the event that the occupation army approaches their detention Netanyahu's insistence on freeing the captives through military pressure instead of making a deal, a prisoner exchange deal, will mean that their return to their families will be in coffins. Their families must choose, either dead or alive." Um and so that seems pretty uh it's at least crystal clear psychological operations if not uh confirmation from Qassam that these um soldiers were um were executed. Um, but we'll have to follow this story again. There's no evidence. There's lots of data points that suggest this. Um, but maybe we'll look into this more in the future when we have more information on it. But for now, both sides, the Israelis and Qassam in this negotiation this week on the Philadelphia corridor made their positions very well known. So, and then number nine here tomorrow, this is a message for the Israeli military after the messages for Netanyahu. This one is to Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military chief of staff. It says he he was quoted somewhere saying we can go anywhere in Gaza. And Qassam says, "Yes, you may reach us, but with every advance you will be shredded and killed." And we're seeing operations here that have been carried out. People may remember these operations. There's one the bulldozers there were from Shuja'iyya. We're seeing the Tel al-Hawa ambush by the new recruits in the Netzarim corridor. And so, that video messaging, again, this um psychological operations pointed at Herzi Halevi, who is the IDF chief of staff. He's a West Bank settler. His father was in the Irgun. He is a special forces commander during Cast Lead, where he said his soldiers failed to uphold moral standards, essentially calling his soldiers war criminals. And then we'll remember earlier in the war, Halevi's the one who issued that memo that said, "Stop genociding all over Gaza and acting like you're on a killing spree. Stop making trophy videos of your crimes and stop looting." Um, so none of that happened. Nobody listened to Herzi, but it gives you an idea of some of the messaging going back and forth here. Yeah, that that that bulldozer there, that was Shuja'iyya. That was the Tal al-Hawa ambush. Um and so again, these messages being sent with operations that were successful. There's the new recruits there going to uh to carry out that operation.