Netanyahu rejects Board of Peace's Gaza plan: No 'withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed'
Israel is rejecting a 15-point Gaza proposal put forward by the Board of Peace, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, declaring that Israeli forces will not withdraw from the enclave until Hamas fully gives up its weapons.
"Israel rejects the 15-point Gaza document proposed by the Board of Peace," Netanyahu said at Sunday's Cabinet meeting. "The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed."
Israel remains in discussions with the United States over the disarmament of Hamas but insisted any agreement would have to result in the terror group surrendering its entire arsenal, according to Netanyahu.
"It needs to be genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament," Netanyahu said.
"When I say Hamas is disarmed, that means the heavy weapons, the less heavy weapons, all the weapons," he added.
Hamas remains committed to a Gaza roadmap agreed with mediators and representatives of the Board of Peace in Cairo 10 days ago, senior Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters.
Hamas expects mediators and the United States to "press Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap," he added.
Trump had teased a disarmament of the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza as a landmark step toward peace, but there remained skeptics, including Israel's Netanyahu, whose Sunday comments put him at odds with the latest Board of Peace proposal as the Trump administration seeks to move forward with a broader plan for Gaza following the ceasefire reached last year.
Trump said last month that there had been a breakthrough in efforts to advance the peace process and that Hamas had agreed to lay down its weapons. Hamas controlled Gaza for nearly two decades before carrying out the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel that triggered the war.
Israel has continued carrying out strikes in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect last October, while the future disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli forces remain central issues in negotiations over the territory.
Netanyahu made clear Sunday that Israel would resist provisions in U.S.-backed proposals that his government considers unacceptable.
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He also reiterated his opposition to the establishment of a Palestinian state in either Gaza or the West Bank.
"As long as I am prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state, not in Gaza and not in Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu said. "Neither ‘Fatahstan’ nor ‘Hamastan.’"
The Israeli leader’s rejection of the 15-point proposal underscores the hurdles facing efforts to turn the ceasefire into a lasting settlement, particularly over the sequence of Hamas’ disarmament and an Israeli military withdrawal.
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Netanyahu indicated Israel would continue working with Washington but said the government would hold firm on its security demands, particularly its insistence that Hamas be fully stripped of its weapons before Israeli troops leave their positions in Gaza.
Netanyahu also used his remarks Sunday to address Israeli operations elsewhere in the region, saying the military had recently acted "forcefully" in Lebanon and carried out what he described as "very important activity."
On Iran, Netanyahu said Tehran has refrained from striking Israel because "it knows what a powerful blow we will deal it if it does," while praising Trump and the U.S.-Israel alliance over efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
"I greatly appreciate President Trump," Netanyahu said." He is the greatest of our friends in the White House. I greatly appreciate the historical partnership with the U.S. against Iran's attempts to acquire nuclear weapons.
"And I wish to emphasize once again: With or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. Because the existence of our precious country, the country of all of us, the existence of Israel, is not up for negotiation."
Reuters contributed to this report.