Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not withdraw its forces from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed, rejecting a US-backed 15-point plan for the territory.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel rejected the document, which Hamas endorsed last month.
“The Israeli army will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed,” he said, adding that Israeli forces would continue to act against threats to its forces and citizens.
Netanyahu said Israel was discussing the issue with the United States, but that some American proposals were acceptable to Israel while others were not.
“There are ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some are not acceptable to us, and we know how to stand firm on these things,” he said.
The White House did not immediately respond to Netanyahu’s remarks.
Hamas said later on Sunday that it remained committed to fully implementing the plan. The group called on mediators and guarantor countries to prevent violations that could disrupt the process.
Trump announced an agreement on July 30 that called for the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza. The plan initially focuses on heavy weapons, military production sites, weapons depots and Hamas’s tunnel network.
Netanyahu said Israel wanted “real disarmament, not fictitious disarmament”, including the removal of lighter weapons.
He also said that no Palestinian state would emerge while he remained prime minister.
The plan envisages transferring Gaza’s day-to-day administration to a technocratic Palestinian committee under the oversight of the US-led Board of Peace.
Israel has continued to carry out attacks across Gaza despite the ceasefire agreed with Hamas last October, according to the source.
Gaza’s health ministry said at least 1,258 people had been killed and 4,139 wounded since the ceasefire began, with more than 800 bodies recovered from rubble. It put the overall death toll in Gaza since October 2023 at at least 73,386, with 174,250 wounded.
