Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal by US-backed mediators for disarming Hamas, hardening his position after earlier voicing misgivings at the suggestion that Israel reciprocate with phased pullouts from Gaza.
“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu told his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, according to an official translation. In his original remarks, he used a Hebrew verb that could be understood as “Israel rejects” or “rules out”.
“The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, and it will continue to thwart threats against our forces and citizens,” Netanyahu added.
He was responding to the so-called “roadmap” published on July 30 by the Board of Peace, an international consortium tasked with implementing US President Donald Trump’s post-war vision for the ravaged Palestinian territory. The president quickly lauded the roadmap as an “historic agreement” and “a major milestone.”
There was no immediate comment from the US Embassy in Jerusalem.
Hamas has given only a hedged consent to the roadmap, saying it would hand over heavy weapons to a proposed new Gaza administration and conditioning this on Israeli withdrawals and the creation of a Palestinian state. The roadmap speaks of the new administration empowering individual Palestinians to keep their small arms.
Trump’s original plan envisaged Israeli troops and tanks leaving the Gaza Strip entirely, and discussions of eventual statehood – while casting these as end-results of a complete demilitarization and post-Hamas stabilization of the territory.
The initial, ceasefire phase of that plan was clinched last October. There’s been little diplomatic progress since then, as the Israeli army has advanced beyond armistice lines against a shrinking Hamas fiefdom where some 2 million Palestinians are crammed.
Israel launched the war in response to an October 2023 invasion by Hamas which blindsided Netanyahu’s religious-rightist government. Three years on, this October, Netanyahu is hoping for reelection. With Hamas still undefeated, he has pointed to Israel’s continued grip on Gaza as a lesser victory of sorts.
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Far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition have been upset by the roadmap. One of them, Orit Strock, called it a “bloodshed map” in a radio interview she gave before Sunday’s cabinet meeting. Following Netanyahu’s remarks, her party’s leader, Bezalel Smotrich, praised the prime minister for issuing the “clarification”.
The Board of Peace’s top diplomat Nickolay Mladenov met Netanyahu last week, and after that the consortium said “the withdrawal of the IDF beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning is complete” – a reference to land controlled by Israel since the ceasefire.
Hamas said it wanted clarification from the Board of Peace. On Sunday, the faction said it would “continue to engage positively and responsibly with the efforts aimed at completing the implementation of the agreement, in a manner that ensures an end to the suffering of our people, and protects their national rights and interests.”
Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union.
A surge of Israeli air strikes in July that targeted Hamas commanders, and in which dozens of civilians were also killed, has ceased since the Mladenov visit – a tacit sign that Netanyahu has heeded calls not to endanger the diplomacy.
In another signal of potential progress, the Board of Peace on Saturday said it had brought together experts to plan temporary housing for displaced Palestinians, an interim measure before the permanent reconstruction which Mladenov has said would require Hamas first to disarm.
Separately, Netanyahu’s office said work was underway on a new tent city, funded by the United Arab Emirates, in an area that the IDF had cleared of Hamas and weaponry.
