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By Steven Scheer
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel does not need to keep troops in the southern Gazan border area for security reasons and should not be used as a reason to prevent a deal to bring back remaining hostages from the Gaza Strip, a longtime military veteran said on Tuesday.
Benny Gantz, a former general and chief of staff who had been part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war cabinet until he quit in June, said Iran, not the so-called Philadelphi corridor, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip bordering Egypt, was Israel's main existential threat.
In a news conference in response to comments on Monday by Netanyahu, who held firm in his belief that Israel needed troops in Philadelphi, Gantz said that while the corridor was important to prevent Hamas and other Palestinian militants from smuggling weapons into Gaza, soldiers would be "sitting ducks" and won't stop tunnels.
He also rebutted Netanyahu's assertion that if Israel were to pull out from Philadelphi, international pressure would make it difficult to return.
"We will be able to return to Philadelphi if and when we are required," Gantz said, also calling for new elections.
"If Netanyahu does not understand that after October 7 everything has changed ... and if he is not strong enough to withstand the international pressure to return to Philadelphi, let him put down the keys and go home."
The issue of the Philadelphi corridor has been a major sticking point in efforts to secure a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and return Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Some 101 hostages are still being held in Gaza.
Netanyahu's stance on the negotiations, which have been continuing for weeks while showing little sign of a breakthrough, has frustrated allies, including the United States, and widened a rift with his own defence minister, Yoav Gallant.
"The story is not Philadelphi but the lack of making truly strategic decisions," said Gantz.
He added there was a plan in place to block underground Hamas tunnels with a barrier but that Netanyahu has not promoted this politically.
While Gantz, head of a centrist party that is seen as the largest threat to head a new government, was speaking as thousands of Israelis protested for a third straight day in Tel Aviv in support of a deal to bring back the hostages.
"We need to bring about a deal - either in stages or in one stage," said Gantz, a former defence minister, who also said Israel needed to mount an attack on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to stop daily rocket fire and allow displaced citizens of the north to return home.
Responding to Gantz, Netanyahu said in a statement that since Gantz and his party left the government, Israel has eliminated key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders and seized the Philadelphi corridor, "the lifeline by which Hamas arms itself".
"Whoever does not contribute to the victory and the return of the hostages would do well not to interfere," he said.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
