Netanyahu rejects Board of Peace’s Hamas disarmament plan, rules out Gaza pullback

Setting up possible confrontation with the Trump administration, Israel’s prime minister says Jerusalem has not accepted the Board of Peace’s new roadmap for Gaza and has drafted a list of amendments.

By World Israel News Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has not accepted the Board of Peace’s proposed roadmap for disarming Hamas, publicly challenging an agreement President Donald Trump had hailed as a major breakthrough toward ending the Gaza conflict.

In a video statement released Tuesday, Netanyahu said the Trump administration believed it might be able to secure Hamas’s disarmament and the broader demilitarization of Gaza, but stressed that Jerusalem had not approved the document negotiated with the terror group.

“They sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu also declared that the IDF would not withdraw “from our current lines” until “Hamas is completely disarmed,” drawing a distinction between Israel’s position and a roadmap that envisions Israeli withdrawals taking place in stages as Hamas relinquishes its weapons.

The disagreement centers largely on sequencing. The Board of Peace plan calls for Hamas and other armed terrorist groups to be gradually disarmed while Israeli troops pull back in corresponding phases. Netanyahu, by contrast, is demanding that Hamas’s disarmament be completed before Israel leaves any of the additional territory it has taken since the October 2025 ceasefire.

Israeli forces withdrew to the original Yellow Line under that agreement, leaving the IDF in control of approximately 53% of Gaza. Israel subsequently expanded the area under its control to more than 60% of the territory. Netanyahu’s statement indicates that the IDF will not initially return even to the original line envisioned by the ceasefire.

The roadmap approved by Hamas last week calls for Israel and the Palestinian factions to halt military operations and gives the parties 14 days to prepare a detailed timetable and implementation mechanism.

Under the proposal, Hamas would surrender civilian governance and internal security responsibilities to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a Palestinian technocratic body supported by the Board of Peace. An International Verification Committee would determine whether each side had completed its obligations before the process advanced to the next stage.

The plan also provides for the decommissioning and storage of heavy weapons, weapons-production sites, arsenals and tunnels. An international stabilization force would support the new Palestinian administration, supervise security arrangements and assist in training a Palestinian police force.

Israel has objected to several elements of the document. Israeli officials have argued that Hamas’s weapons must be destroyed rather than merely placed in storage and have opposed giving Qatar and Turkey positions on the international committee responsible for verifying implementation.

Jerusalem has also protested that it was not directly involved in negotiating the roadmap and was presented with a finished document after Hamas, the Board of Peace and mediators from the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey had reached an understanding.

The Board of Peace maintains that the roadmap is an extension of Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan, which Israel accepted in 2025. A senior US official said last week that Israel was therefore not being asked to accept an entirely new framework and warned that Trump would be “very disappointed” if Jerusalem prevented the proposal from advancing.

Trump announced the Hamas agreement Thursday, describing it as “historic” and saying it would achieve the complete disarmament of Hamas and other armed factions. He later claimed that Israel was “very happy” with the arrangement, an assertion contradicted by Netanyahu’s subsequent declaration that Israel never accepted its terms.

The Board of Peace’s senior Gaza envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, and adviser Aryeh Lightstone met Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday in an effort to narrow the differences.

The board described the discussions as “constructive and detailed” and said its objective remained “the complete decommissioning of weapons in the Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun.”

After the meeting, the board appeared to adjust its description of when Israel would be expected to withdraw. It said the IDF would not move beyond the Yellow Line until Hamas’s light and heavy weapons and tunnel network had been decommissioned.

“Withdrawal must move in lockstep with decommissioning,” Mladenov had said when the agreement was announced.

That formulation could allow Israel to remain at the original Yellow Line until the disarmament process is complete. Netanyahu, however, went further, saying Israel would not leave its current positions — including territory captured beyond that line — before Hamas was fully disarmed.

The prime minister also rejected demands for Israel to suspend all military activity while the roadmap is implemented. He said Israeli troops would retain authority to take whatever action was required to protect themselves, Israeli territory and Israeli civilians.

Mladenov reportedly pressed Netanyahu to halt Israeli strikes to prevent further damage to the negotiations. Israel has instead maintained that it must preserve freedom of action against Hamas members who threaten its forces or attempt to rebuild the group’s military capabilities.

Hamas says it will not begin surrendering its weapons until Israel halts its attacks and starts withdrawing.

“We will not take any action regarding disarmament prior to Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip,” Hamas negotiator Ghazi Hamad said.

Benjamin NetanyahuBoard of Peacegaza stripHamasTrump Gaza plan