Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has restated his rejection of President Donald Trump's 15-point plan to end the Gaza war, even as Israel's military has scaled back attacks under U.S. pressure. Israel and Hamas remain split over whether troop withdrawal or Hamas disarmament must come first, complicating the ceasefire reached in October.
Netanyahu rejects the 15-point plan
Netanyahu restated Israel's rejection of Trump's latest Gaza plan in televised remarks to his right-wing government on Sunday, even as Israel's military has effectively halted attacks in the territory under U.S. pressure. Netanyahu told cabinet ministers: "Israel does not accept the 15-point document," adding that the military will not withdraw until Hamas disarms its heavy and light weaponry. He said Israel is in talks with the United States on the plan, and that some of Washington's ideas are acceptable while others are not, without elaborating further.
The premier is in campaign mode ahead of an election due Oct. 27, caught between far-right ministers angered by concessions in Gaza and Trump, his key military backer, who wants progress on the plan. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised Netanyahu's stance, saying in a statement that the military cannot withdraw even a metre from the Gaza Strip, and separately that reconstruction in the Gaza Strip cannot begin before Hamas is completely dismantled and demobilized.
Israel and Hamas disagree over sequencing
Trump announced last month a breakthrough under which Israel and Hamas agreed in principle: Israeli forces would withdraw as Hamas disarms, with an International Stabilization Force and a new Palestinian police force securing the enclave. But complications emerged quickly. Israel says its troops will not move before Hamas disarms, while Hamas insists Israel must halt its attacks first before it starts handing over arms.
Hamas avoids describing its concession as disarmament, saying instead that it agreed to hand over weapons for storage under a U.S.-backed Palestinian technocrat administration overseen by Trump's Board of Peace. Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters the group remains committed to the roadmap agreed with mediators in Cairo 10 days earlier, and called on mediators and the U.S. to press Netanyahu to adhere to it rather than obstruct the process for electoral reasons.
Scaled-back strikes and the ceasefire's toll
Israel has scaled back attacks in Gaza since Monday, when Nikolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy for Trump's Board of Peace, met with Netanyahu. A source familiar with Israel's position said the military agreed to act only against what it perceives as immediate threats, ending the near-daily targeted assassinations it had been carrying out.
Since the October ceasefire, Israel had vowed to hunt down every militant involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack before it stopped the targeted strikes this week. More than 1,250 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Israeli troops have occupied and depopulated two-thirds of the enclave, confining nearly all of its more than 2 million residents to a narrow coastal strip, most in tents or damaged buildings.
Hamas said it agreed to the plan to spare Gaza's population a possible resumption of war, but that implementation depends on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawal.
Source: CNBC
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