Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, insisting Israel will not withdraw until Hamas fully disarms. The Israeli prime minister made the statement at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, saying the military will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against Israeli forces and citizens.
Netanyahu is now in discussions with US officials about how to go forward, deeming some ideas acceptable while others are not. The 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.
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.
However, 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 Hamas.
The 15-point plan 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 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. 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.
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.
