Benjamin Netanyahu Rejects Trump’s 15-Point Gaza Plan, Vows No Withdrawal Until Hamas Disarms

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected United States President Donald Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, saying Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”

“will not withdraw at all until Hamas is genuinely disarmed”

CNN

Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting, “Israel rejects the 15-point document,” and said Israel would not withdraw “at all until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and citizens.”

@globaltimesnews

The dispute follows Trump’s late-July announcement that his Board of Peace had reached a “historic agreement” for the “COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” with Netanyahu now insisting on disarmament before any pull-back.

The BBC reported that Hamas said handing over heavy weapons was contingent on Israel ending “all forms of aggression” and withdrawing its forces from Gaza, while Israel continued to carry out strikes on Gaza after agreeing to an initial ceasefire last October.

Hamas said it remained committed to the roadmap set out by Trump’s Board of Peace, with Bassem Naim telling reporters, “We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government.”

Al Jazeera framed Netanyahu’s rejection as a hardening stance under election pressure, quoting Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh saying the discussions “are extremely controversial for the [Netanyahu-led] right-wing government.”

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Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, defended the plan as “the only way forward that ensures this tragedy does not happen again,” and said he hoped for a “positive outcome.”

The Guardian’s editorial argued that Netanyahu’s rejection meant “the continued, brazen violation of the terms of last October’s ceasefire agreement,” while also citing Netanyahu’s message to the White House that “we know how to stand our ground, even against our best friends when necessary.”

The Guardian said the Israeli military has expanded its presence and now controls about 65% of the territory, while formal schooling has not restarted and the entry of medical and other humanitarian aid remains severely restricted.

“controls about 65% of the territory”

The Guardian

The editorial also warned that reconstruction work has been blocked and that the first building contract issued by the Board of Peace was for an outpost to host foreign troops, linking the dispute to the broader failure of the US-backed sequencing.

In parallel, the BBC reported that the war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, and that more than 73,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the territory’s health ministry whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

NPR reported that Netanyahu’s demand for “genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament” comes with Israel’s election scheduled for October 27, and it said the apparent stalemate follows Trump’s Board of Peace deal announced in late July and a phased approach that left unresolved issues for later negotiations.