Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a US-backed peace plan for Gaza and vowed to stand up to Donald Trump.
The Israeli leader told a cabinet session on Sunday that he rejected the 15-point roadmap published by the Board of Peace last month, a body created by the White House last year.
The plan, endorsed by the Trump administration, included a phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and parallel disarmament of Hamas.
Netanyahu said: “Israel rejects the 15-point document. The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. And when I say Hamas must be disarmed, I mean the heavy weapons, the less-heavy weapons, all weapons.”
He described Trump as a “great friend” but added that his government “knows how to stand our ground even against our very best friends when necessary.”
The peace plan envisaged reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave, which has been devastated by Israeli attacks (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP)What is the Board of Peace and its plan for Gaza?
The Board of Peace is a body of international leaders inaugurated by Trump in January to oversee the future of the devastated Palestinian enclave of Gaza under the leadership of Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov.
The Board has 28 founding members, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Tony Blair sitting as members of its founding executive board.
The body announced its roadmap on 30 July following the US President’s announcement that Hamas had agreed to disarm. It largely reiterated a 20-point proposal that had been announced by the Trump administration before a ceasefire went into effect in Gaza last October.
Key points include a cessation of all attacks, disarming of Hamas and other Palestinian factions, Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the beginning of reconstruction, and the installation of a Palestinian technocratic government and international peacekeepers.
Hamas had agreed to disarm under pressure from mediators but details of the process remained unclear, including how disarmament would take place, the order of weapons to be handed over, and which body would hold them.
Trump had hailed the deal as a “historic agreement” and said Israel was “very happy” with it.
Donald Trump holds up the founding charter of the Board of Peace at the World Economic Forum in January, flanked by world leaders who backed the organisation (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty)Why has Netanyahu rejected the peace plan?
The Israeli leader said Hamas would have to fully disarm before any Israeli withdrawal – despite this not being a condition of the original ceasefire agreement.
Netanyahu suggested that talks with the US were ongoing, and Israeli strikes in Gaza would continue. More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect, according to local health officials.
“They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not acceptable to us, and we know how to stand up to these things,” Netanyahu said. “We have proven this in the past, and we are proving it today as well. In addition, the IDF will continue to thwart threats against our forces and against our citizens.”
Haggai Matar, director at Israeli magazines +972 and Mekomit, said Netanyahu’s actions were an indication that he was attempting to maintain the “status quo” that existed before the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.
“His first goal is just to buy time,” he told The i Paper. “That was the pre-October 7 policy. It worked for him for many years, and he was able to sell that as sound policy – essentially that we’ve beaten the Palestinians – and that all blew up on October 7.
“But I think he’s now back to that. That’s kind of generally what he’s trying to do: buy time and not promote any long-term solutions while controlling Palestinians and having a free hand to continue bombing and killing Palestinians, which Israel does in Gaza all the time.”
Netanyahu’s rejection of the plan comes months before Israeli elections on 27 October. The PM has recently faced calls from his far-right allies to hold a new cabinet vote and end the Gaza plan. These include national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said the draft was “not acceptable”.
Matar said Netanyahu “cannot afford to upset his right-wing base” when he is “really struggling for his future political career and personal life” – noting that the Israeli leader is facing trials over corruption that could lead to a jail sentence.
Israel’s far-right minister of National security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has rejected the plan (Photo: Erik Marmor/Getty)Will this lead to a clash with Trump and is the peace plan dead?
Israel has been heavily reliant on US military and diplomatic backing over almost three years of war across the Middle East. Trump has said Israel would no longer exist without US support against Iran.
After rejecting the peace deal, Netanyahu went on to praise the US President for his partnership against Iran, while also asserting that Israel would continue to stand its ground.
He said: “I have great appreciation for Trump. He is a great friend of ours in the White House. I greatly appreciate the historic partnership with the United States against Iran’s attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. And I want to emphasise again: with an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am Prime Minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
Nimrod Novik, an Israel former diplomat now at the Israel Policy Forum think-tank, said it was up to Trump to use US leverage. “No predecessor [as US president] has exercised as much leverage with Netanyahu as Trump has in forcing him to a ceasefire twice each in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Yet now he tolerates sabotaging a unique moment,” he added.
“The three regional mediators – Egypt, Qatar and Turkey – delivered for Trump a major breakthrough that holds the potential for salvaging his Gaza plan: Hamas’s forced consent to disarm. With the Netanyahu veto, the Trump 20-point plan is again dead in the water.”
Trump is yet to comment on Netanyahu’s statements. Last month, White House sources said the US President would be “disappointed” if Israel did not accept the plan.
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