Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has rejected US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza and will not withdraw Israeli forces until Hamas fully disarms, potentially creating further obstacles to increasingly complex efforts to reduce tensions across multiple fronts in the region.
“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, referring to the plan endorsed by Hamas last month.
The Israeli army “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed … and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel is “talking to the Americans about this issue.”
“They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some are not acceptable to us, and we know how to stand firm on these things,” he said.
There was no immediate response from the White House. In a statement published on Telegram later on Sunday, Hamas said it remained committed to fully implementing the plan.
The Palestinian armed group called on mediators and guarantor countries to “assume their responsibilities” and prevent any “violations or breaches” that could derail the process.
Israel has continued to carry out near-daily deadly attacks across the Gaza Strip despite the so-called ceasefire with Hamas that began last October. Trump announced what he described as a “historic” agreement on July 30, which called for “the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza” and which he said represented “a monumental step toward lasting peace and security.”
Disagreement over disarmament
The deal was credited to the US-led Board of Peace, inaugurated in February 2026 and comprising roughly 40 countries, including Israel and several Arab states, but no Palestinian representatives. Trump was installed as its chair for life.
Speaking to his cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu vowed that “as long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will arise” and emphasized that Israel would not accept key elements of the US-backed plan.
Israel’s demand for “real disarmament, not fictitious disarmament” would mean the removal of all weapons, including lighter arms, Netanyahu said.
The 15-point plan, however, calls for an initial focus on Hamas’s heavy weaponry, military production sites, weapons depots and extensive tunnel network.
Netanyahu is playing a “very dangerous game” with Trump, according to analysts who warn that Israel is becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States, with the Democratic Party “very much sliding towards the Palestinian cause.”
Trump could ultimately decide to “say it is time to split with Israel”, the analysts said, a move that could prompt many in the Republican Party, “the last staunchest ally of Israel in the US”, to follow suit.
Netanyahu’s statement also raises “serious questions” for Palestinians about the path out of hostilities.
“The full rejection here puts the sequencing and the steps into question,” one analyst said.
Netanyahu’s stated conditions could prove “extremely problematic for the Board of Peace and the mediators who have been working for months now to try to carry out the disarmament of Hamas,” the analyst added.
Gaza ceasefire remains fragile
The roadmap would eventually involve transferring Gaza’s day-to-day administration to a technocratic Palestinian committee operating under the oversight of the Board of Peace. But the board has “very limited power” to move forward without Israeli support.
“Netanyahu has hit the reset button,” an analyst said.
Since Hamas and Israel agreed to a nominal ceasefire last October, experts have expressed skepticism about whether Israel would honor the agreement, as Israeli forces have continued to carry out attacks across Gaza.
At least one child was injured by Israeli army gunfire in the Al-Najjar neighbourhood of Khan Younis on Sunday, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
Since the ceasefire began in mid-October last year, at least 1,258 people have been killed and 4,139 wounded, while more than 800 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The overall death toll in Gaza since October 2023 has reached at least 73,386, with 174,250 people wounded, according to the ministry.
