Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's 15-point plan for Gaza at a cabinet meeting Sunday, saying Israeli forces would not withdraw from the territory until Hamas is "genuinely" disarmed.
"Israel rejects the 15-point document," Netanyahu said at the meeting. "The Israeli military will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens."
Netanyahu set a clear sequence: disarmament first, withdrawal second. He said he meant "heavy weapons, lighter weapons, all weapons," and added that the disarmament could not be "some fictitious disarmament — it had to be real." That position directly contradicts the arrangement Trump described just over a week ago as a breakthrough, when the president announced that Hamas had, for the first time, agreed to disarm.
Hamas has accepted the 15-point plan but attached conditions. A Hamas official told the BBC on Sunday the group "reaffirms its commitment to the agreement" and said it was ready to engage "seriously and responsibly" in implementing the framework. The group called on mediators to ensure that "all parties comply with what has been agreed." Hamas has said handing over heavy weapons depends on Israel ending all hostilities and withdrawing its forces from Gaza.
Netanyahu made clear that Israeli forces would not withdraw until Hamas disarmed first — a sequencing demand that leaves little room for the phased approach Trump's framework appears to envision.
Trump announced the 15-point plan in September last year. Its provisions include the creation of a Board of Peace to oversee implementation, the disarmament of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza, a withdrawal of Israeli troops and the reconstruction of the territory. Last month, the Board of Peace said it had reached an agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas — a claim Hamas's own statements have since complicated by attaching sequencing conditions.
A senior Board of Peace official insisted Sunday that the U.S.-backed peace plan remains the only path forward for Gaza. Nickolay Mladenov, the senior diplomat tasked with implementing Trump's plan, was also present in discussions. Separately, a source said that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Netanyahu agreed during recent talks that a U.S. general should oversee Hamas demilitarization — part of a renewed push to revive the broader framework.
Netanyahu said he is now in active discussions with U.S. officials on how to proceed. "They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these matters," he said. Trump told reporters Friday that Israel was "very happy" with the deal, brushing off questions about its viability despite visible friction from Netanyahu's government.
Netanyahu faces intense domestic pressure that limits his room to move. Israeli elections are set for Oct. and right-wing members of his coalition have demanded a hard line on Gaza. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir dismissed the 15-point draft as "not acceptable" and called for a new cabinet vote to end the Gaza plan entirely. Ben Gvir represents the far-right flank of the coalition that Netanyahu depends on for his governing majority.
Israel has carried out strikes on Gaza continuously since agreeing to an initial ceasefire last October. The strikes have continued through the period in which the 15-point plan was being negotiated and announced, complicating Hamas's stated position that any disarmament talks presuppose a full halt to hostilities.
The gap between Netanyahu and Trump is tactical, not strategic, in the view of people close to both governments. Both leaders say they want Hamas removed from power and Gaza demilitarized. The dispute is over sequencing: Trump's framework appears to allow for a phased process in which disarmament and withdrawal happen in steps, while Netanyahu has made full Hamas disarmament a precondition for any Israeli military pullback. Any realistic implementation, analysts and officials have acknowledged, would require a phased approach — but Netanyahu has not publicly accepted that framing.
Netanyahu's open rejection of the plan puts Trump in a difficult position. The president has presented the Gaza framework as one of his foreign policy successes and publicly claimed both Israel and Hamas are on board. Sunday's cabinet statement from Jerusalem undercuts that narrative directly, though Netanyahu signaled he is not walking away from U.S. engagement — only from this specific document as written.
