Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a US-backed plan for Gaza that Hamas has agreed to saying Israel will not withdraw its forces until Hamas gives up its weapons.
Netanyahu announced his position at a cabinet meeting on Sunday after facing growing opposition from members of his right-wing coalition.
“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” he said, referring to the plan Hamas agreed to in late July.
He said the Israeli military would not begin withdrawing from Gaza until Hamas was “genuinely disarmed” and would continue operations to protect Israeli soldiers and civilians.
Netanyahu described US President Donald Trump as “our greatest friend in the White House”, but made clear that Israel does not accept all parts of the US proposal.
“They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not,” he said, adding that Israel would continue to defend its position in talks with Washington.
The rejection comes at a difficult political time for Netanyahu. Israel is due to hold elections on October 27, the first since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which triggered the Gaza war.
Opinion polls show that the Gaza plan has little support among Netanyahu’s right-wing voters. Far-right members of his government have also been pressing him to reject the deal.
Nickolay Mladenov, the senior official overseeing Trump’s Gaza plan through the Board of Peace, defended the proposal and said it offered the best way to prevent another attack like October 7.
“The option we are offering today is the only way forward that ensures this tragedy does not happen again,” Mladenov told Israel’s Channel 12.
He said he hoped further talks with Israel would produce a positive result. Mladenov also said Israel would eventually have to withdraw from Gaza, although he maintained that it would not face such an obligation until Hamas had surrendered its weapons.
Hamas has urged the United States and other mediators to put pressure on Netanyahu to accept the roadmap.
“We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap,” Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told AFP.
Hamas said in a separate statement that it remained committed to the plan.
Netanyahu’s rejection also highlights growing differences between him and Trump, who has strongly backed Israel since returning to the White House.
The Gaza proposal is part of a US-brokered ceasefire announced in October that has reduced Israeli military operations in the territory but has not brought them to an end.
Israeli forces continued to carry out operations in Gaza on Sunday.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said Israeli gunfire injured several people, including a child who was taken to a hospital in Khan Yunis.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, which is run by Hamas, Israeli military operations have killed 1,258 Palestinians since the ceasefire began.
The Israeli military has reported five deaths among its forces during the same period.
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