Netanyahu says Israel did not agree to Trump-backed Gaza plan, sent counter-comments

The prime minister's rebuff

The public statement came in a video posted to social media on the night of 4 August. Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had been sent a draft by the team of US President Donald Trump and had not agreed to it.

They sent us a draft. We did not agree to it. It was not our draft. We sent back our comments.

The remarks were his first direct comment on the plan, which the US-backed Board of Peace had characterised as a "full disarmament" of Hamas. Netanyahu added that Israeli forces would not withdraw "from our current lines" until Hamas is completely disarmed.

The Board of Peace framework

The draft is meant to implement the second phase of the ceasefire deal that ended the war. Under its terms, Hamas would give up heavy and light weapons and tunnels, and Israel would pull its troops back to the Yellow Line, which demarcated 47 percent of the territory for Palestinian control and 53 percent for Israeli control. Since the truce began, however, the Israeli military has expanded its area of control from 53 percent to over 60 percent of the Gaza Strip.

The Board of Peace, following a Monday meeting between Netanyahu, Israeli officials, and its envoy Nikolay Mladenov, had stated that the Israeli withdrawal "will take place only once decommissioning is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators".

Circular deadlock with Hamas

Hamas declared on Friday that it accepted the deal announced by Trump, but the movement conditions the handover of heavy weapons on the Israeli army first pulling out of Gaza. Netanyahu meanwhile signalled indirect scepticism about Hamas's willingness to disarm, saying Israel would "check this assumption of the US president, or his team".

The Times of Israel analysed that Netanyahu's insistence on not withdrawing from "current lines" may signal that Israel is unwilling to return even to the Yellow Line originally agreed under the ceasefire, a step the Board of Peace plan explicitly requires.

Domestic political pressure

Netanyahu faces pressure from the far-right flank of his ruling coalition. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlement Minister Orit Strook demanded a new vote in the security cabinet, arguing that the plan did not reflect the original discussions. The cabinet had already approved the proposal.

A meeting was set for Tuesday but was postponed to Thursday, according to Israeli media reports, amid primary voting in Netanyahu's Likud party ahead of the 27 October elections. Tal Elovits, a researcher at the Molad think tank, described the demand for a new vote as "a campaign move" to pressure the prime minister.

The Israeli right-wing has always tried to postpone a scenario in which this conflict becomes an international conflict. Obviously, the IDF's behaviour will be different once you have soldiers from Kosovo, from Indonesia.

Limited Israeli options

Elovits added that Israel has no concrete way to tear up the US-sponsored plan, given the country's diplomatic isolation. Netanyahu, he said, is "not a very active player", but rather someone trying to block ideas without putting an alternative on the table.

Netanyahu has no other option besides listening to his only friend left in the diplomatic community.

The Board of Peace had described Monday's session as a "constructive and detailed" meeting and maintained that the goal of complete decommissioning of weapons in the Strip "is not in question". Talks, according to the board, will continue in the next phase of work.