Israel Rejects Trump’s Hamas Peace Plan

Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed the door on the American plan to strip Hamas of its weapons.

The Israeli prime minister told a Sunday cabinet meeting that his government would not sign onto the 15-point proposal drawn up by President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, according to the New York Post. Netanyahu insisted Israeli troops would stay put in Gaza until the terror group surrenders its arsenal.

“I want to be precise here: Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said, according to the Post. He added that the military “will not withdraw at all until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and citizens.” (RELATED: Gazans Set To Decide Hamas’ Fate With First Election In 20 Years)

Talks with Washington are still running, the prime minister said, even as the two governments spar over how any deal should unfold. “They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand up to those things,” he said, the Post reported.

Netanyahu also shut down any path to Palestinian statehood. “As long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will be established — not in Gaza and not in the West Bank,” he said.

Trump had promoted the plan last month as a possible breakthrough. The proposal called for a phased Israeli pullback tied to Hamas giving up heavy weapons, production sites, arms depots and its tunnel network first, Al Jazeera reported. The Board of Peace stated last week that no withdrawal would happen before disarmament was finished, following a meeting between its director, Nickolay Mladenov, and Netanyahu.

A senior Hamas figure pushed back after the rejection. “We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons,” politburo member Bassem Naim wrote on X.

نحن ملتزمون بخارطة الطريق التي تم التوصل إليها مع ممثلي مجلس السلام في القاهرة قبل أيام، وموافقتنا، رغم كل التحديات، عكست حرصا على مصالح شعبنا الفلسطيني. ننتظر من الوسطاء والضامن الأمريكي الضغط على نتنياهو وحكومته لإلزامه بالخارطة وعدم تعطيل المسار لأسباب سياسية وانتخابية داخلية.

The timing carries weight for Netanyahu, who faces a re-election fight in late October with his coalition trailing in polls, according to the Post. Israel currently holds more than half of Gaza, and his far-right partners want to widen that grip. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich backed the hardline turn, telling reporters the military “cannot retreat one millimeter in the Gaza Strip,” UPI reported.