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Netanyahu rejects roadmap
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected US President Donald Trump’s 15-point Gaza peace plan at a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, saying Israeli troops would not withdraw from the territory until Hamas was “genuinely disarmed”.
“Israel rejects the 15-point document”
Netanyahu told the Cabinet meeting, “Israel rejects the 15-point document,” and said the Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed,” including “heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry.”
The dispute centers on the roadmap presented by Trump’s “Board of Peace,” which calls for Israeli troops to withdraw as Hamas gives up its weapons and for an International Stabilization Force to work alongside a new Palestinian police force to secure Gaza.
Reuters reported that Trump announced a breakthrough on a 15-point roadmap aimed at ending the war in the Gaza Strip, while the BBC said Netanyahu’s rejection came as Israel continued strikes on Gaza after an initial ceasefire last October.
Competing voices and framing
Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said, “We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap, and not obstruct the process,” while the BBC quoted a Hamas official saying the group “reaffirms it commitment” to the agreement.
Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, told Israel’s Channel 12 that the option being offered was “the only way forward that ensures this tragedy does not happen again,” referring to the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The BBC framed the rejection as a blow to Trump’s Gaza peace plan announced in September last year, while DW described Netanyahu’s stance as a public rupture with Trump at a politically sensitive moment ahead of elections scheduled for October 27.
DW also reported that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich welcomed Netanyahu’s position, saying, “The [military] cannot withdraw even a millimetre from the Gaza Strip.”
What’s at stake next
The rejection threatens the sequencing of the second phase of Trump’s plan, which links Hamas disarmament to phased Israeli withdrawal and the transition of governance to a technocratic Palestinian committee backed by an international security force.
“a clear and explicit coup against the negotiation path”
Al Jazeera said Netanyahu’s insistence that Israeli troops will not withdraw until Hamas is “genuinely disarmed” raised the prospect of intense attacks, while the Gaza Government Media Office described the rejection as “a clear and explicit coup against the negotiation path”.
Al Jazeera also reported that Netanyahu’s declaration put the US-brokered ceasefire on the brink of total collapse, even as Hamas affirmed its commitment to the diplomatic process under the US-led Board of Peace and International Stabilization Force.
In parallel, the BBC cited UN figures that about 1.9 million people—90% of Gaza’s population—have been displaced since the war in Gaza started, underscoring the humanitarian scale of what the roadmap is meant to address.