Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly rejected United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace 15-point plan for Gaza, declaring that Israeli forces will not withdraw from the territory until Hamas is completely disarmed.
“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday. The Israeli army “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens,” he added.
Netanyahu also used the occasion to restate his opposition to Palestinian statehood. “As long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will be established — not in Gaza and not in the West Bank,” he said.
Netanyahu said Israel had not agreed to the disarmament framework, which was the result of separate negotiations between Hamas, the Trump-controlled Board of Peace and mediating countries Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United States.
“They sent us a draft. We did not agree to it. It was not our draft. We sent back our comments,” he said.
Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, which both Israel and Hamas agreed to last year and which started with the ceasefire.
Israel has continued to carry out strikes on Gaza since agreeing to the ceasefire last October.
Hamas said it would only implement the disarmament deal if Israel halted strikes in Gaza and pulled its troops back to the yellow line as defined by the October 2025 ceasefire agreement.
Israeli forces currently occupy more than half of Gaza, in the east and south of the territory.
During a meeting with Netanyahu last week, Board of Peace Director Nickolay Mladenov urged the Israeli prime minister to stop attacks on Gaza.
Israel has steadfastly refused to do so, and has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians since the October ceasefire took effect, including more than 36 after the disarmament deal was announced.
(The Whistler)