Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, insisting Israel will not withdraw until Hamas fully disarms.
The US president claimed last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, which both Israel and Hamas agreed to last year and which started with the ceasefire.
Trump said that Hamas, which ruled Gaza for nearly two decades before carrying out the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, had agreed to lay down its weapons.
“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday.
The Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens”, he added.
The Israeli prime minister said he is now in discussions with US officials about how to go forward, deeming some ideas “acceptable” while some “are not”.
Last month, Egypt, which is mediating negotiations between Israel and Hamas, said that both sides had agreed to a new 15-point roadmap and that a future meeting would be held in Cairo “to discuss implementation mechanisms”.
Trump had thanked Egypt, Qatar and Turkey for brokering the agreement and called the deal “historic”.
A senior Hamas negotiator said at the time that the group’s disarmament was conditional on Israel fulfilling its commitments under the agreement, including withdrawing from Gaza and allowing the establishment of a national committee and reconstruction efforts.
Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad said: “The agreement contains a clear provision stating that Israel must commit to and implement its obligations. If Israel does not implement the agreement, neither will we.”
Israel’s rejection of the plan is a further blow for Trump, who announced his Gaza peace plan in September last year.
Just months away from Israeli elections, Netanyahu is considered unlikely to pull back from his hardline stance.
Last month, the Israeli prime minister told his cabinet that he would not agree to requests from the US to withdraw troops from locations in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza, according to Channel 13.
Sources told the broadcaster that Netanyahu said he would “stand on my own two feet and resist” amid growing pressure from the Israeli far-right for the military campaign to continue.
What was in Trump’s 15-point plan for peace in Gaza?
The deal included the total disarmament of Hamas and other groups in Gaza as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory.
It also stipulated that Hamas and “other factions” agree that “all civilian governance and security functions in Gaza shall be handed over” to a new technocratic body set up to run the enclave.
With that, the technocratic body would take over responsibility for handling “internal security incidents”.
The 15-point plan also said that the process would be “linked” to an Israeli withdrawal “in phases”, towards a complete withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave. There was no mention of a reconstruction process.
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Under the initial deal to end the war, Israel was supposed to pull back to a demarcation point termed the Yellow Line, separating 47 per cent of the land controlled by the Palestinians from the 53 per cent controlled by Israel. Israel was supposed to steadily withdraw from its position, but has instead increased its area of control to around two-thirds.
The Board of Peace on Monday had hailed a “constructive and detailed” meeting between Netanyahu, Israeli officials and Gaza envoy Nikolay Mladenov.
The Board noted that the full withdrawal of the Israeli military beyond the Yellow Line “will take place only once decommissioning is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators”.
Hamas rejected the word “disarmament” but has said it would hand over its weapons for storage under the control of a US-backed Palestinian administration after Israel halted operations and withdrew its forces in line with last year’s ceasefire.
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