Dan Williams and Fares Akram
Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal by US-backed mediators for disarming Hamas, hardening his position after voicing misgivings at the suggestion that Israel reciprocate with phased withdrawal from Gaza.
“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu told his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday (Israel time), according to an official translation. In his original remarks, he used a Hebrew verb that could be understood as “Israel rejects” or “rules out”.
“The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, and it will continue to thwart threats against our forces and citizens,” Netanyahu added, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.
He was responding to a “roadmap” published last month by the Board of Peace, an international consortium set up to implement US President Donald Trump’s postwar vision for the ravaged Palestinian territory. The president has lauded the roadmap as an “historic agreement” and “a major milestone”.
There was no immediate White House comment on Netanyahu’s statement.
Hamas has given only a hedged consent to the roadmap, saying it would hand over heavy weapons to a proposed new Gaza administration and conditioning this on Israeli withdrawals and the creation of a Palestinian state. The roadmap speaks of the new administration empowering individual Palestinians to keep their small arms.
Trump’s original plan envisaged Israeli troops and tanks leaving the Gaza Strip entirely, and discussions of eventual statehood – while casting these as end results of a complete demilitarisation and post-Hamas stabilisation of the territory.
The Board of Peace sounded circumspect about Netanyahu’s remarks, describing the road map as its deal with Hamas, rather than with Israel – and the timeline as protracted.
“Nobody is required to do anything, last of all lsrael, before we actually have verified steps on the ground” by the Palestinian cadres, the board’s top envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, told Israel’s Channel 12 television.
While predicting that decommissioning Hamas tunnels – another requirement of Trump’s plan – may take years, Mladenov said that with each eventual success in clearing a sector of territory “Israel is required to move back, progressively, step by step, in stages, ultimately to the fence of Gaza”.
The initial, ceasefire phase of the Trump plan was clinched in October. There’s been little diplomatic progress since, and the Israeli army has advanced beyond armistice lines against a shrinking Hamas fiefdom where some 2 million Palestinians are crammed.
Israel launched the war in response to an October 2023 invasion by Hamas that blindsided Netanyahu’s religious-rightist government. Three years on, Netanyahu is hoping for re-election in October. With Hamas still undefeated, he has pointed to Israel’s continued grip on Gaza as a lesser victory.
Far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s coalition have been upset by the roadmap. One of them, Orit Strock, called it a “bloodshed map” in a radio interview before Sunday’s cabinet meeting. Following Netanyahu’s remarks, her party’s leader, Bezalel Smotrich, praised the prime minister for issuing the “clarification”.
Hamas, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group in the West, said it was committed to the roadmap and accused Netanyahu of “obstructing the process for domestic, political and electoral reasons”.
“We expect the mediators and the US guarantor to exert pressure on Netanyahu and his government to compel him to abide by the roadmap,” Hamas negotiator Bassem Naim said in a statement.
A surge of Israeli air strikes in July that targeted Hamas commanders – which also killed dozens of civilians – has ceased since August 3, a tacit sign that Netanyahu heeded Mladenov’s calls not to endanger the diplomacy.
A source familiar with Israel’s position said it had agreed that the military would only act against what it perceives as immediate threats in Gaza and no longer carry out targeted assassinations as it had been doing on a near-daily basis, Reuters reported.
In another signal of potential progress, the Board of Peace on Saturday said it brought together experts to plan temporary housing for displaced Palestinians, an interim measure before the permanent reconstruction that Mladenov has said would require Hamas to disarm first.
Separately, Netanyahu’s office said work was underway on a new tent city, funded by the United Arab Emirates, in an area that the IDF had cleared of Hamas and weaponry.
Bloomberg, AP
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