Netanyahu rejects Trump Gaza plan, Israel demands Hamas disarmament before any withdrawal, US-backed roadmap becomes a ceasefire without a timetable

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Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan (Reuters) Reuters

Gaza has been reduced to rubble after Israel’s relentless attacks of the strip (Reuters) Reuters

The Israeli PM is unlikely to pull back from his hardline stance ahead of the country’s elections (GPO) GPO

Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu rejects Trump’s Gaza plan and vows no withdrawal until Hamas disarms theguardian.com

Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a Gaza peace plan endorsed by US president Donald Trump, telling an Israeli cabinet meeting that Israel will not withdraw its forces until Hamas is “genuinely disarmed”. The Guardian reports Netanyahu described the proposal as a 15-point document, while The Independent says the plan had been endorsed by Hamas in late July and was being discussed with mediators.

The clash is less about the existence of a ceasefire than about what a ceasefire is allowed to buy. According to The Independent, the roadmap ties an Israeli pullout to a disarmament process and would shift civilian governance and security functions in Gaza to a new technocratic body. That sequencing is precisely what Israel is rejecting: Netanyahu is demanding full disarmament as a precondition, not an outcome. Hamas, for its part, is presenting disarmament as conditional on Israel fulfilling its commitments, including withdrawal and the creation of a national committee and reconstruction efforts, a senior Hamas negotiator told The Independent.

The result is a familiar problem in written form: each side wants the other to make the first irreversible move. A governing authority in Gaza without an armed Hamas would be a different political entity; an Israeli withdrawal before disarmament would change the military facts on the ground. The Guardian notes that “Board of Peace” members argue full Hamas disarmament is not realistically achievable, which turns the Israeli demand into something closer to a standing veto on withdrawal. The Independent adds that under earlier understandings Israel was supposed to pull back to a demarcation known as the Yellow Line, but its area of control has expanded since then.

Trump has framed his plan as a diplomatic breakthrough, thanking regional mediators and claiming Hamas had agreed to lay down its weapons, according to The Independent. Netanyahu, however, is describing the same text as unacceptable while saying he is still discussing objections with US officials and that some US ideas are “acceptable” and others “not acceptable”. That leaves Washington with a document it can advertise and a partner on the ground who can decline to implement it, while the ceasefire reduces but does not end Israeli operations, according to the Guardian.

Netanyahu’s position was delivered as a simple operational condition: no pullout until disarmament. The plan he rejected is still being talked about in capitals, but the next concrete step—who moves first—remains unanswered.