Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected the 15-point plan for postwar Gaza compiled by President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.
Netanyahu said the plan did not do enough to address Israel’s security concerns, particularly on the topic of disarming the terrorists of Hamas. Netanyahu expressed his criticism of the Board of Peace plan in nationally-televised comments at his weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday.
“I want to clarify here. Israel rejects the 15-point document,” he said bluntly.
Netanyahu said it was important to speak plainly because media reports have highlighted him, and other senior Israeli officials, expressing support for some aspects of the plan. He said he wanted to make it clear that Israel has non-negotiable conditions which are not addressed by the current iteration of the Board of Peace proposal.
“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. And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not a fictitious one,” he said.
Netanyahu said the only reason Israel has known peace over the past year is because it controls Gaza and Hamas fears retaliation for another October 7-style atrocity.
“It may attack, but why have long weeks gone by without it attacking us? Because it knows what a powerful blow we will inflict on it if it does,” he said.
Netanyahu confirmed that some of the proposals emanating from the Board of Peace are agreeable, while he disagrees with others. He stressed that he values America as an ally, but refuses to compromise Israel’s security needs.
“They have ideas. Some of them are acceptable to us and some are unacceptable to us, and we know how to stand up to these things. We have proven this in the past, and we are proving it today as well,” he said. “In addition, the IDF will continue to thwart threats against our forces and against our citizens.”
Netanyahu emphasized that his refusal of the Board of Peace plan was not meant as an insult to the board, or to President Donald Trump.
“I have great appreciation for President 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,” Netanyahu said.
“And I want to emphasize again: With an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not possess nuclear weapons,” he added, touching on another hot-button issue.
“Unlike all those who preach to us, we are doing what needs to be done for Israel’s security, and we can and know how to stand our ground even against our very best friends when necessary,” he declared.
Shortly after making these remarks on Sunday, Netanyahu reportedly approved a pilot program in which the IDF would withdraw from three positions near Rafah in southern Gaza — but then changed his mind and canceled the withdrawals, acting so abruptly that senior IDF officials only learned of his decision from media reports.
Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov insisted on Monday that fully implementing its 15-point proposal is the only way for Israel to guarantee its national security.
Mladenov said the plan would ensure another attack like October 7 would “never, ever be allowed to happen.”
“The option that we are offering today is the only way that we move forward that guarantees that this tragedy will not occur again,” he said.
Directly responding to one of Netanyahu’s major criticisms, Mladenov said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would not be expected to surrender any control of Gaza territory until a “full decommissioning of all weapons” by Hamas and the Board of Peace plan would not hinder Israel’s ability to respond to acts of aggression by Palestinian terrorist groups.
“Once each sector is decommissioned, and the weapons are certified — that they have been taken over and stored by the NCAG, the Board of Peace, and rendered unusable — then Israel is required to move back progressively, step by step, in stages,” he said.
The NCAG is the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the ostensibly apolitical transitional government of Gaza sanctioned by the Board of Peace and the U.N. Security Council (UNSC).
“Nobody is required to do anything — last of all Israel — before we actually have verified steps on the ground,” Mladenov insisted. “If there is verified decommissioning of weapons, that they are taken away from the factions, and stored, and ultimately rendered unusable, Israel then withdraws from Gaza.”
Mladenov said it would take Israel “more than a decade” to destroy the extensive tunnel network Hamas created in Gaza, using billions stolen from international humanitarian funds, but with help from the Board of Peace, “It can be done much quicker and more effectively.”
Mladenov speculated that Netanyahu and other Israeli officials were cool toward the 15-point plan because they “think that we have based this whole thing on trust,” but he claimed “everything needs to be verified, and everything needs to be done on a step-by-step basis.”
’I’m not building any of this on the basis of trust, and none of us are, and we’re very clear-eyed about the risks going forward. We’re building it on verification, and this is pretty much the basic premise — which I would like both sides to really trust — that because of the verification process, we actually have a chance,” he said.
A senior U.S. official told Israeli media that the White House was “not troubled by those comments from Netanyahu.”
“We understand his political needs. We have no problem with that, as long as he continues to do what we ask — especially as regards reining in the strikes in Gaza,” the U.S. official said, strongly implying that Netanyahu’s comments and actions on Sunday were merely political theater to shore up his right flank ahead of elections.
Israel’s right-wing finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, quickly expressed his support for Netanyahu’s position.
“We went to war with a central goal: the destruction of Hamas. The IDF cannot withdraw even a millimeter from the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip cannot begin any process of reconstruction before the complete dismantling and demobilization of Hamas and the Gaza Strip,” he said.
On Sunday evening, Axios reported that Netanyahu had pledged to support the 15-point Board of Peace plan in a conversation with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner last week, adding some weight to speculation that Netanyahu’s last-minute objections might be withdrawn.
As for Hamas, the Palestinian terror group said it supported the Board of Peace plan and wanted the U.S. to pressure Israel into staying on board.
“Hamas and other factions have confirmed to mediators their readiness to begin implementing the agreement and move to the second phase, provided it receives Israeli approval and that Israel begins implementing the agreement,” a Hamas official told Agence France-Presse on Saturday.
“Hamas is urging the U.S. administration to exert pressure on Israel to compel it to abide by the agreement and move to the second phase,” the official said.
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