US: Israel agreed to withdraw from parts of Philadelphi as part of hostage deal

The White House declared that its latest, Israel-backed hostage deal proposal includes an IDF withdrawal from heavily populated areas along the Philadelphi Corridor, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel must indefinitely maintain a presence along the Egypt-Gaza border stretch, Report informs referring to The Times of Israel.

“The deal itself, including the bridging proposal that we started working with… includes the removal of Israeli Defense Forces from all densely populated areas… in phase one… and that includes those areas along and adjacent to that corridor,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby in a briefing with reporters. “That’s the proposal that Israel had agreed to.”

However, Kirby declined to clarify whether this means that the US supports allowing Israeli troops to remain in less densely populated areas along the Philadelphi Corridor during the six-week, first phase of the deal.