JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Aug 9 – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected key parts of U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest plan for ending the Gaza war, exposing a widening disagreement between Israel and Hamas over how and when the proposed ceasefire arrangements should be implemented.
Speaking to his right-wing cabinet on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel would not accept the 15-point roadmap in its current form. His comments came as Israeli forces have significantly reduced their attacks across Gaza since Monday, following discussions between Netanyahu and Nikolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy for Trump’s Board of Peace, which is overseeing the ceasefire process.
The developments have placed Netanyahu in a difficult political position. He is facing growing pressure from his far-right coalition partners, who oppose any Israeli concessions to Hamas, while Trump, Israel’s most important military and political backer, is pressing for movement toward a broader agreement aimed at ending the conflict.
Netanyahu is also approaching a closely watched election scheduled for October 27. His political position has become increasingly complicated as he attempts to balance demands from his nationalist allies with Washington’s push for an agreement that could bring an end to the fighting.
Israel has scaled back military operations in Gaza since Monday. According to a person familiar with Israel’s position, the Israeli military has agreed to restrict its actions to what it considers immediate threats and has stopped carrying out targeted assassinations, which had been taking place almost daily.
Mladenov said on Sunday that discussions over Trump’s roadmap were still continuing, indicating that the proposed agreement remains subject to negotiations between the parties.
The reduction in Israeli attacks has raised hopes that the ceasefire framework could eventually move into a more substantive phase. But Netanyahu’s latest comments show that fundamental disagreements remain, particularly over the relationship between Hamas disarmament and an Israeli military withdrawal.
Israel Demands Hamas Disarmament Before Any Withdrawal
Trump announced last month that his administration had made progress on a plan intended to end the war in Gaza. Under the proposed arrangement, Israeli forces would gradually withdraw as Hamas gives up its weapons, while an International Stabilization Force would work alongside a new Palestinian police force to provide security inside the enclave.
The framework has nevertheless encountered immediate difficulties over the order and timing of its commitments.
“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu told ministers at the beginning of Sunday’s cabinet meeting. He made clear that Israel’s military would not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas had been fully disarmed.
Netanyahu said that requirement applied to all categories of weapons, including heavy and light weaponry. His position effectively puts Hamas disarmament ahead of any significant Israeli withdrawal.
The Israeli prime minister had already expressed similar reservations in a social media statement earlier in the week. Israeli officials have also communicated their objections directly to the U.S. administration as negotiations continue.
Netanyahu acknowledged that Washington had presented several ideas as part of the discussions, but said Israel would accept some proposals while rejecting others.
“We know how to stand firm against these things,” Netanyahu said, signaling that his government does not intend to accept the American roadmap without changes.
Mladenov offered a somewhat different description of how the proposed withdrawal would work. In an interview with Israeli N12 News, he said Israeli forces would be expected to pull back “sector by sector” once weapons had been removed from Hamas and made unusable.
That difference is at the heart of the current dispute. Israel wants assurances that Hamas will first surrender its military capabilities, while Hamas says implementation of the agreement depends on Israel carrying out its own obligations, including withdrawal from Gaza and an end to military attacks.
Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters on Sunday that the group remained committed to the roadmap agreed in Cairo about 10 days earlier. He called on the mediators and the United States, acting as guarantor, to put pressure on Netanyahu’s government to follow the agreement rather than delay it for domestic political reasons.
The competing positions leave the proposed deal facing a difficult test. Both sides say they have accepted the broader framework, but they appear to interpret the sequence of its most important obligations differently.
Hamas has also avoided describing its commitment as a straightforward agreement to “disarm.” Instead, the group says it has agreed to hand over its weapons for storage under a U.S.-backed Palestinian technocratic administration that would manage civilian affairs in Gaza under the supervision of Trump’s Board of Peace.
The group has said it accepted the arrangement because it wants to prevent a return to full-scale war. At the same time, Hamas insists that implementation must be linked to Israel meeting its own commitments, particularly regarding military withdrawal and the cessation of attacks.
Netanyahu Faces Pressure From Coalition Allies and Trump
Netanyahu’s position is being closely watched by members of his governing coalition, especially far-right ministers who have consistently opposed concessions to Hamas.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly backed Netanyahu’s position on Sunday, arguing that Israel entered the war with the objective of destroying Hamas and should not withdraw from Gaza before achieving that goal.
“We went to war with a central goal: the destruction of Hamas,” Smotrich said in a statement. “The military cannot withdraw even a millimetre from the Gaza Strip.”
The comments highlight the political constraints facing Netanyahu. Any agreement requiring an Israeli withdrawal could trigger opposition from members of his own coalition, while refusing Trump’s initiative could create tension with an American president who has strongly supported Israel and is now seeking a path toward ending the Gaza conflict.
Trump has said Hamas, which controlled Gaza for nearly two decades before its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel triggered the war, had agreed to surrender its weapons as part of the proposed settlement.
Hamas, however, has presented the weapons issue differently, emphasizing that they would be placed in storage rather than describing the arrangement as an unconditional surrender.
The disagreement comes against the backdrop of continued devastation across Gaza.
Since the U.S.-mediated ceasefire reached in October 2025, more than 1,250 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to Gaza health officials. Most of those killed were civilians, although Hamas has not provided a figure for the number of its fighters killed during the same period. Four Israeli soldiers have also been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire.
Israeli forces currently control and have depopulated roughly two-thirds of the Gaza Strip, according to the information available from officials on the ground. The territory’s more than 2 million residents have been largely pushed into a much smaller coastal area, where many are living in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.
The humanitarian situation adds urgency to the diplomatic effort, but the political obstacles remain substantial. Hamas wants Israel to begin fulfilling its commitments before the group makes further moves on its weapons, while Netanyahu insists that disarmament must come before a meaningful Israeli withdrawal.
For now, the reduced level of Israeli military activity has created some space for negotiations, but Netanyahu’s rejection of the current version of Trump’s roadmap shows that the ceasefire remains fragile.
With Israel’s election approaching and pressure coming from both Washington and Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners, the prime minister faces a difficult choice. He must decide how far he is willing to go with Trump’s initiative without alienating the political forces that have helped sustain his government, while Hamas must determine whether it can meet the security demands of the proposed arrangement without first receiving guarantees of an Israeli withdrawal.
The coming days are therefore likely to determine whether Trump’s 15-point proposal can move from a broad political framework toward an actual implementation process, or whether disagreements over weapons, military withdrawal and the timing of commitments will once again prevent a lasting settlement in Gaza.