Disputes over the now infamous Philadelphi security corridor are once again plaguing efforts to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, an Israeli spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News Digital on Thursday. 

Hopes of cease-fire and hostage exchange deal first confirmed by the U.S. and Qatar on Wednesday appeared to be quelled by the time Americans were waking up on Thursday morning.

“The terrorist organization Hamas repeatedly raises new demands at the last minute, even though everything has already been agreed upon with the mediators, including the U.S.,” spokesman for the prime minister Omer Dostri said, echoing comments made by Netanyahu in which he accused Hamas of “creating a last-minute crisis” and “backing out” of terms negotiated by the mediators. 

KIRBY ‘CONFIDENT’ AMERICANS IN GAZA WILL BE FREED SUNDAY AMID REPORTS OF ISRAEL, HAMAS DEAL HOLDUP

When pressed by Fox News Digital for specifics on what issues have once again apparently stalled the deal set to be implemented on Sunday, Dostri pointed to renewed disagreements over the security corridor that runs between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

“[Hamas is calling for] changing the deployment of Israeli military forces in the Philadelphia corridor,” Dostri said without expanding on what deployment disagreements have occurred.  

The passage of land has repeatedly proved to be a sticking point in negotiations and may have contributed to the collapse of a July deal in which American-Israeli Hersh Golberg-Polin was slated to be freed, but which never came to fruition. Golberg-Polin and five other hostages were then killed one month later in a tunnel in Gaza. 

Jerusalem has claimed this corridor is vital for its national security interests as Hamas could use it to re-group by relying on smuggling efforts and connections with Jihadi groups in Egypt’s North Sinai region.

Israeli combat engineers search for Hamas tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border.  (TPS-IL)

In response to Fox News Digital, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said, “We’re aware of these issues and we are working through them with the Israeli government, as well as other partners in the region. We are confident these implementing details can be hammered out and that the deal will move forward this weekend.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed this sentiment and told reporters in a press briefing that the deal will be “implemented on Sunday.”

IDF soldiers are battling terrorists in the vital Netzarim Corridor in Gaza. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit)

A part of the deal believed to have been agreed to this week said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would remain in the Gaza Strip until the last hostage was freed. But Israel also agreed to begin withdrawing its forces to a security zone surrounding the communities on the Gaza border, reported the Times of Israel.

ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE DEAL HANGS IN BALANCE AS KEY VOTE IS DELAYED

It is unclear what specifics regarding the Philadelphi corridor were agreed under the deal, though a senior diplomatic official told The Times of Israel that Israeli soldiers were intended to remain in the security corridor through the entirety of the first phase of the cease-fire. 

But Ruby Chen, father of Itay Chen – an IDF soldier who is believed to have been killed during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and whose body was taken into Gaza by Hamas – believes it is the security demands by the far-right in Israel that could once again pose a threat to the hostage deal. 

Chen pointed to right-wing government members like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who have repeatedly rejected any deal that does not include continued IDF presence in the Gaza Strip. 

File showing Hamas terrorists during a military parade in the Bani Suheila district on July 20, 2017, in Gaza City, Gaza.  (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

“The coalition members of Bibi, are giving him a very hard time. And you know, he might be looking to get out of it,” Chen said. “It’s easy to blame the other side.”

Another issue that has allegedly popped up, according to Netanyahu’s spokesman, is Hamas’ demands over the release of certain terrorist members currently held by Israel, though Fox News Digital was unable to confirm exactly what new demands have been levied. 

In exchange for the hostages still held in Gaza, Israel has agreed to release dozens of Palestinian prisoners in the initial phase of the deal set to last 42 days. During that period, 33 hostages who fall under “humanitarian categories” including any possible children, women, the elderly and the sick will be freed first.

The second phase, which will be negotiated on the 16th day of the cease-fire, will then involve the release of soldiers held by Hamas, both living and dead. Some reports have suggested that Israel could release more than 1,000 prisoners by the time the exchanges are through. 

Family members of Americans who were taken hostage by Hamas during the terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, including (R-L) Ronen Neutra, Ruby Chen, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, Liz Naftali, Adi Alexander, Orna Neutra, and Yael Alexander talk to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House on December 13, 2023, in Washington, DC. The families were invited to a private meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.  ( Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Chen has arduously pushed for the release of all the hostages, including the deceased, and argued that the plan to release soldiers and the deceased in a separate stage was no longer good enough.

“[That] was maybe needed seven months ago, when the framework was put in place,” Chen said. “Since then, everybody is humanitarian – including the deceased. 

“The only thing that you can predict about the Middle East is that it is unpredictable,” Chen added. “The Middle East is always a match-light away from blowing up.”

Lawyers face up to five years in jail on charges of links to Navalny’s groups, which the Kremlin deems ‘extremist’.

A Russian court has sentenced three lawyers who had defended the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny to several years in prison.

Friday’s sentences come as Russia, amid a massive crackdown during its war on Ukraine, seeks to punish Navalny’s associates since his unexplained death in an Arctic prison colony in February 2024.

Igor Sergunin, Alexei Liptser and Vadim Kobzev were handed sentences ranging from three and a half years to five years by a court in the town of Petushki, about 100km (60 miles) east of Moscow for bringing messages from the late opposition leader from prison to the outside world.

The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported that Kobzev said in his final statement in court on January 10 that “we are being tried for transmitting Navalny’s thoughts to other people”.

They were arrested in October 2023 on charges of involvement with “extremist” groups, as Navalny’s networks were deemed by authorities.

The case was widely seen as a way to increase pressure on the opposition to discourage defence lawyers from taking political cases.

At the time, Navalny was serving a 19-year prison term on several criminal convictions, including extremism, which he has vehemently denied.

Navalny’s networks were deemed extremist following a 2021 ruling that outlawed his organisations – the Anti-Corruption Foundation and a network of regional offices – as extremist groups.

That ruling, which exposed anyone involved with the organisations to prosecution, was condemned by Kremlin critics as politically motivated and designed to stifle Navalny’s activities.

According to Navalny’s allies, authorities accused the lawyers of using their position to pass information from him to his team.

Navalny, an anticorruption campaigner and outspoken opponent of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in 2021 upon his return from Germany, where he was recuperating from a nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin.

In December 2023, Navalny was moved from a penal colony in the Vladimir region east of Moscow to one above the Arctic Circle, where he died the following February at the age of 47 under still-unexplained circumstances.

On Friday, his widow issued a statement calling for the three lawyers to be freed “immediately”, describing them as “political prisoners”.

Two other lawyers, Olga Mikhailova and Alexander Fedulov, are on a wanted list but no longer live in Russia.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A mysterious airstrip being built on a remote island in Yemen is nearing completion, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show, one of several built in a nation mired in a stalemated war threatening to reignite.

The airstrip on Abd al-Kuri Island, which rises out of the Indian Ocean near the mouth of the Gulf of Aden, could provide a key landing zone for military operations patrolling that waterway. That could be useful as commercial shipping through the Gulf and Red Sea — a key route for cargo and energy shipments heading to Europe — has halved under attacks by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The area also has seen weapons smuggling from Iran to the rebels.

The runway is likely built by the United Arab Emirates, which has long been suspected of expanding its military presence in the region and has backed a Saudi-led war against the Houthis.

While the Houthis have linked their campaign to the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, experts worry a ceasefire in that conflict may not be enough to see the rebels halt a campaign that’s drawn them global attention. Meanwhile, the Houthis have lobbed repeated attacks at Israel, as well as U.S. warships operating in the Red Sea, raising fears that one may make it through and endanger the lives of American service members.

A battlefield miscalculation by Yemen’s many adversarial parties, new fatal attacks on Israel or a deadly assault on an American warship easily could shatter the country’s relative calm. And it remains unclear just how President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday, will handle the emboldened rebel group.

“The Houthis feed off war — war is good for them,” said Wolf-Christian Paes, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who studies Yemen. “Finally they can live up to their slogan, which famously, of course, declares, ‘Death to America, death to the Jews.’ They see themselves as being in this epic battle against their archenemies and from their view, they’re winning.”

Satellite images show airstrip nearly complete

Satellite photos taken Jan. 7 by Planet Labs PBC for the AP show trucks and other heavy equipment on the north-south runway built into Abd al-Kuri, which is about 35 kilometers (21 miles) in length and about 5 kilometers (3 miles) at its widest point.

The runway has been paved, with the designation markings “18” and “36″ to the airstrip’s north and south respectively. As of Jan. 7, there was still a segment missing from the 2.4-kilometer- (1.5-mile-) long runway that’s 45-meters (150-feet) wide. Trucks could be seen grading and laying asphalt over the missing 290-meter (950-foot) segment.

Once completed, the runway’s length would allow private jets and other aircraft to land there, though likely not the largest commercial aircraft or heavy bombers given its length.

While within Houthi drone and missile range, the distance of Abd al-Kuri from mainland Yemen means “there’s no threat of the Houthis getting on a pickup truck or a technical and going to seize it,” said Yemen expert Mohammed al-Basha of the Basha Report risk advisory firm.

The United Nations’ Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization, which assigns its own set of airport codes for airfields around the world, had no information about the airstrip on Abd al-Kuri, spokesman William Raillant-Clark said. Yemen, as a member state to ICAO, should provide information about the airfield to the organization. Nearby Socotra Island already has an airport declared to the ICAO.

It’s not the only airfield to see an expansion in recent years. In Mocha on the Red Sea, a project to extend that city’s airport now allows it to land far larger aircraft. Local officials attributed that project to the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The airfield also sits on a similar north-south path as the Abd al-Kuri airstrip and is roughly the same length.

Other satellite photos from Planet Labs show yet another unclaimed runway currently under construction just south of Mocha near Dhubab, a coastal town in Yemen’s Taiz governorate. An image taken by Planet for the AP on Thursday showed the runway fully built, though no markings were painted on it.

A key location for a country riven by war

Abd al-Kuri is part of the Socotra Archipelago, separated from Africa by only 95 kilometers (60 miles) and from Yemen by some 400 kilometers (250 miles). In the last decade of the Cold War, the archipelago occasionally hosted Soviet warships due to its strategic location.

In recent years, the island has been overseen by Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council, which advocates for Yemen to again split into a separate north and south as it was during the Cold War. The UAE has backed and armed the council as part of the Saudi-led war against the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in 2014.

The UAE, home to the massive Jebel Ali port in Dubai and the logistic firm DP World, previously built a base in Eritrea that was later dismantled and attempted to build an airstrip on Mayun, or Perim, Island, in the center of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

But unlike those efforts, the Emiratis appear likely to open the Abd al-Kuri airstrip — and have even signed their work. Just east of the runway, piles of dirt there have spelled out “I LOVE UAE” for months.

An Emirati-flagged landing craft also was spotted off the coast of Abd al-Kuri in January 2024 and off Socotra multiple other times in the year, according to data analyzed by AP from MarineTraffic.com. That vessel previously has been associated with the UAE’s military operations in Yemen.

The UAE, which runs a once-a-week flight to Socotra via Abu Dhabi, have long described their efforts as aimed at getting aid to the archipelago. Asked for comment about the Abd al-Kuri airfield, the UAE similarly pointed to its aid operations.

“Any presence of the UAE … is based on humanitarian grounds that is carried out in cooperation with the Yemen government and local authorities,” the Emirati government said in a statement.

“The UAE remains steadfast in its commitment to all international endeavors aimed at facilitating the resumption of the Yemeni political process, thereby advancing the security, stability and prosperity sought by the Yemeni populace.”

The Southern Transitional Council and officials with Yemen’s exiled government did not respond to repeated requests for comments over the airfield. The UAE’s presence on Socotra has sparked tensions in the past, something the Houthis have used to portray the Emiratis as trying to colonize the island.

“This plan represents a serious violation of Yemeni sovereignty and threatens the sovereignty of several neighboring countries through the espionage and sabotage operations it is expected to carry out,” the Houthi-controlled SABA news agency said in November.

Smuggling route passes by the island

A new airport on Abd al-Kuri could provide a new, secluded landing zone for surveillance flights around Socotra Island. That could be vital to interdict weapons smuggling from Iran to the Houthis, who remain under a U.N. arms embargo.

A report to the U.N. Security Council said a January 2024 weapons seizure by the U.S. military took place off Socotra near Abd al-Kuri. That seizure, which saw two U.S. Navy SEALs lost at sea and presumed killed, involved a traditional dhow vessel that U.S. prosecutors say was involved in multiple smuggling trips on behalf of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard to the Houthis.

Disrupting that weapons route, as well as the ongoing attacks by the U.S., Israel and others on the Houthis, likely have contributed to the slowing pace of the rebels’ attacks in recent months. The U.S. and its partners alone have struck the Houthis over 260 times, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Next week, Trump will be the one to decide what happens to that campaign. He has experience already with how difficult fighting in Yemen can be — his first military action in his first term in 2017 saw a Navy SEAL killed in a raid on a suspected al-Qaida compound. The raid also killed more than a dozen civilians, including an 8-year-old girl.

Trump may reapply a foreign terrorist organization designation on the Houthis that Biden revoked, a reimposition that the UAE backs. Marco Rubio, who Trump has nominated to be secretary of state, mentioned the Houthis several times when testifying Wednesday at his Senate confirmation hearing alongside what he described as threats from Iran and its allies.

Any U.S. move could escalate the war, even with the Houthi’s enigmatic supreme leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, pledging Thursday night to halt the rebels’ attacks if a ceasefire deal is reached in Gaza.

“I don’t see a way in 2025 that we have a de-escalation with the Houthis,” said al-Basha, the Yemen expert. “The situation in Yemen is very tense. An outbreak in the war could be a reality in the next few months. I don’t foresee the status quo continuing.”