Netanyahu says Trump's new Gaza plan is unacceptable

By Steven Scheer and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu restated his rejection of Donald Trump's latest Gaza plan in televised remarks to his right-wing government on Sunday, even as Israel's military has effectively halted attacks in the territory under pressure from the U.S. President.

Netanyahu is struggling in the polls as he seeks re-election at a vote due on October 27 but is caught between far-right ministers angered by concessions in Gaza and his key military backer, Trump, who wants progress toward ending the conflict there with a new 15-point roadmap.

Israel has scaled back attacks in Gaza since Monday, when Nikolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy for Trump's Board of Peace that oversees the ceasefire, met with Netanyahu.

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.

Mladenov said on Sunday that discussions on the new roadmap were ongoing.

ISRAEL AND HAMAS DISAGREE OVER TIMINGS IN TRUMP'S PLAN

Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, to which both Israel and Hamas agreed, with Israeli forces withdrawing as Hamas disarms and an International Stabilization Force working with a new Palestinian police force to secure the enclave.

But complications have swiftly emerged with questions over the plan's timeline.

"Israel does not accept the 15-point document," Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with cabinet ministers. The military "will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed ... it means heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry.

Netanyahu made similar remarks in a social media post on Tuesday and Israeli officials have said reservations have been shared with Washington.

He added that Israel was in talks with the United States on the plan. "They (the U.S.) have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some of which are unacceptable to us and we know how to stand firm against these things," Netanyahu said.

In an interview with Israeli N12 News, Mladenov said Israel would be required to withdraw "sector by sector" once weapons have been taken from Hamas and rendered unusable.

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters on Sunday that the group remained committed to the roadmap agreed in Cairo 10 days ago.

"We expect the mediators and the U.S. guarantor to press Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons," he said.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised Netanyahu. "We went to war with a central goal: the destruction of Hamas," he said in a statement. "The (military) cannot withdraw even a millimetre from the Gaza Strip."

Trump said last month that Iran-backed Hamas, which ruled Gaza for nearly two decades before carrying out the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, had agreed to lay down its weapons.

Hamas avoids the use of the term "disarmament" and said the group agreed to hand over weapons to be stored under a U.S.-backed Palestinian technocrat administration that would run the affairs in Gaza under the supervision of Trump's Board of Peace.

Hamas said it agreed to the plan to avoid a resumption of war, but it added that the implementation of the deal would depend on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawal and halting attacks.

Israel had vowed to hunt down militants who had taken part in the October 2023 attack before halting the targeted attacks on Monday.

Since the U.S.-mediated ceasefire reached in October 2025, more than 1,250 people have been killed in the Israeli attacks, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Hamas has not disclosed the number of its fighters killed. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in this time in Gaza.

Israeli troops have occupied and depopulated two-thirds of the enclave, leaving nearly all its more than 2 million residents confined to a tiny ​strip of land under Hamas control along the coast, most in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell and Alexander Cornwell; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Alexander Smith, Philippa Fletcher and Nick Zieminski)