Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected for the second time a 15-point disarmament plan for Hamas that was announced by President Trump and the so-called “Board of Peace” on July 30.
“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting, according to Reuters. Last week, the Israeli leader said that the US had sent a draft, and that Israel “did not agree to it.”
In his comments on Sunday, Netanyahu added that the IDF “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed … it means heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry. And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament.”
Under the initial framework announced by Trump and the BoP, Israel was supposed to start withdrawing from Gaza as the process of disarming, called “decommissioning,” began to take place. But after BoP officials met with Netanyahu, the US-led body walked back that part of the deal, saying that the IDF won’t begin a withdrawal “beyond the yellow line” until Hamas was disarmed.
But even with the BoP adopting his talking points, Netanyahu has still rejected the deal. “They (the US) have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some of which are unacceptable to us,” he said on Sunday.
Following Netanyahu’s comments, a US official told Israel’s Channel 12 that the US wasn’t concerned, framing his public position as purely political since elections are coming up in Israel. “We understand his political needs [in this election period]. We have no problem with that, as long as he continues to do what we ask — especially as regards reining in the strikes in Gaza,” the US official said.
Israeli attacks in Gaza have slowed since Monday, August 3, but they haven’t stopped, as the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Sunday that the IDF had launched attacks across the Strip involving gunfire, artillery shelling, fire from naval vessels, and drones. Gaza’s Health Ministry said that over the previous 24-hour period, Israeli attacks killed at least one Palestinian and wounded eight.
Hamas has maintained it won’t go through with the plan unless Israel lives up to its commitments, which include ending its attacks in Gaza and withdrawing back to the original yellow line created after the ceasefire deal was signed more than nine months ago. At the time, Israel was left with 53% of Gaza under its control, but it has increased to about 70% as the IDF has been conducting ground incursions.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters that Hamas was still committed to the plan and called on the US to pressure Israel. “We expect the mediators and the US guarantor to press Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons, while continuing to jeopardize the region’s security and stability,” he said.
