Israel will not withdraw troops from Gaza until Hamas fully disarms, the prime minister has said
Israel has rejected US President Donald Trump’s 15-point peace plan for Gaza and will not withdraw troops from the Palestinian enclave until Hamas is completely disarmed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
The roadmap was published last month as part of efforts by the Trump-led Board of Peace to end the Gaza conflict. It calls for Hamas to relinquish control of Gaza and for its weapons to come under the authority of a Palestinian administration. The process would be linked to a phased Israeli withdrawal and independently verified before each new stage begins.
“I want to be clear: Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with cabinet members.
”The IDF will not withdraw in any way until Hamas is disarmed… We are talking about complete disarmament, not a fictitious disarmament,” he said. Israel is discussing the issue with the US and will “stand firm” against provisions it finds unacceptable, he added.
Netanyahu also reiterated that he would not allow the establishment of a Palestinian state, “neither in Gaza nor in the West Bank.”
Trump announced the deal on July 30, describing it as a “historic agreement” on the disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.
“Gaza will finally be in the hands of a new Palestinian government that serves its PEOPLE,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Hamas said it had agreed in principle but insisted that it would not disarm until the IDF had completely withdrawn from the enclave.
The 15-point roadmap seeks to advance the unresolved elements of Trump’s original 20-point peace plan, which produced the October Israel-Hamas ceasefire but later stalled over issues including the group’s disarmament and further Israeli withdrawals.
Trump’s Board of Peace was established following the announcement of the ceasefire as a body tasked with overseeing Gaza’s reconstruction, supervising the transfer of civilian governance to a Palestinian technocratic committee, and coordinating the deployment of an international stabilization force.
However, continued Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,258 people in Gaza and wounded more than 4,100 since the ceasefire was announced, according to local health authorities.
Moscow has maintained that the “only viable solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
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