Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the latest US plan to move towards the next stage of peace in Gaza, demanding the full disarmament of Hamas before any Israeli forces withdraw from the territory.
« Israel rejects the 15-point document, » Netanyahu said at the beginning of a cabinet meeting on Sunday, referring to the roadmap published by President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on 1 August.
He said the Israeli military would « not withdraw at all until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and citizens. »
« And when I say disarm Hamas, that means heavy weapons, less-heavy weapons, all weapons. And we are talking about real disarmament, not a fictitious disarmament, » Netanyahu said.
« We are now discussing this with the Americans. They have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand up to those things. »
« As long as I am prime minister, no Palestinian state will be established — not in Gaza and not in the West Bank, » Netanyahu added.
The 15-Point Roadmap: What Was Proposed
The rejected document is a 15-point « Roadmap for Implementing U.S. President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Peace Plan in Gaza, » published by the Board of Peace (BoP) on 1 August 2026. The Board of Peace is a coalition of 28 countries — including Israel — established by Trump in January 2026 to oversee the administration of Gaza after the war. It is tied to a UN-backed 20-point plan for the stabilization and reconstruction of Gaza, alongside UN Security Council Resolution 2803 (2025).
The roadmap’s first point reaffirms all parties’ commitment to Trump’s Comprehensive Plan, aiming to « end the cycle of destruction, secure the full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, restore normal life, enable Palestinian governance, advance reconstruction, security, recovery and economic development, » and « facilitate the launch of a credible political path that achieves self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state. »
Key provisions of the roadmap include:
- Cessation of military operations: Hamas and Palestinian factions shall complete the cessation of all military operations in accordance with the Sharm el-Sheikh Protocol and the Peace Plan.
- Phased disarmament: A process to « inventory and store heavy weapons, military production sites, weapons depots, and tunnels » — conditional on Israel meeting its commitments under the October 2025 ceasefire. The decommissioning process is described as « gradual, sequential, and time-bound » and linked to a phased Israeli withdrawal. Crucially, the roadmap specifies that « no weapons shall be transferred or handed over to Israel or to any non-Palestinian party. »
- Palestinian governance: Within 14 days of approval by both sides, a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) shall enter the Strip and begin assuming its responsibilities, under the verification of an International Verification Committee (IVC) comprising representatives of the guarantors, the Board of Peace, and the International Stabilisation Force (ISF).
- Israeli withdrawal: Israeli forces shall complete their phased withdrawal from the Gaza Strip according to an agreed-upon timetable, consistent with the roadmap and Trump’s Comprehensive Peace Plan, which includes a commitment not to force anyone to leave the Strip.
- International stabilization: As disarmament is completed, Israeli forces will withdraw, and the International Stabilization Force will work with a new Palestinian police force to take responsibility for Gaza’s security.
Trump’s Announcement and Hamas’s Conditional Acceptance
On 31 July 2026, President Trump announced what he described as a « HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza, » calling it a « monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY. »
The announcement came nine months after a US-brokered ceasefire was signed in October 2025. That agreement called for Hamas to disarm and hand over power to an independent Palestinian administration, for Israel to withdraw, and for an International Stabilization Force to deploy.
Hamas communicated through mediators — including Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States — that it had agreed to the final text of the plan, including the decommissioning of its weapons. However, Hamas set conditions: it would only proceed with the deal if Israel halts strikes in Gaza and pulls troops back to the « yellow line, » as defined by the October 2025 ceasefire agreement.
A senior Board of Peace official told reporters that implementation would take time, with the surrender of heavy weapons and the decommissioning of Hamas tunnels and other infrastructure coming later in a process that could take between 200 and 350 days. The Gaza police force would turn over weapons to the technocratic Board of Peace-backed Gaza administration within the first two weeks.
The Board of Peace’s Diplomatic Push
The Board of Peace’s Director-General and High Representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, met with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on 3 August 2026 in what the Board described as « constructive and detailed » talks.
Mladenov pressed Netanyahu to suspend Israeli strikes and targeted killings in Gaza for 14 days while the sides worked out the plan’s remaining details. He and his team, including senior adviser Aryeh Lightstone, have been pressuring Israel to stop striking Gaza as they push ahead with the agreement to decommission Hamas’s weapons.
After the meeting, the Board of Peace issued a statement attempting to clarify the sequencing: « Contrary to inaccurate reports, we note that the withdrawal of the [Israeli military] beyond the Yellow Line will take place only once decommissioning is complete, as Hamas committed to the mediators. This applies to light weapons, heavy weapons, and the tunnels alike. »
Mladenov said after the talks that implementation of Trump’s Gaza plan had entered the « hard phase. »
Despite the diplomatic push, Israeli strikes in Gaza continued throughout the negotiation period. According to Al Jazeera, Israel has killed more than 1,200 people in Gaza since the October 2025 ceasefire went into effect.
The Reality on the Ground: Israel’s Expanding Footprint
The dispute over sequencing — whether disarmament or withdrawal comes first — is playing out against a rapidly changing reality on the ground.
When the ceasefire went into effect in October 2025, Israeli forces withdrew to a zone demarcated by the so-called « yellow line, » giving Israel control of just over half — approximately 53% — of the Gaza Strip. The yellow line was intended as a temporary demarcation pending the Israeli military’s eventual withdrawal to the edges of Gaza, to be replaced by an international force.
Since then, Israel has steadily expanded its territorial control:
- By March 2026, military maps showed a restricted area covering approximately 64% of Gaza’s territory.
- By June 2026, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported the restricted access zone had expanded to 64.9% of the Strip.
- By July 2026, NPR reported that Israel’s military controls nearly 70% of Gaza, according to comments by Israeli leaders and maps analyzed by aid groups.
- Netanyahu has publicly directed the military to expand control to 70%, stating in May 2026: « I have directed [the IDF] to take more of Gaza, initially by seizing 70% of the Palestinian territory. »
Israel has also been constructing a massive earthen barrier — a network of berms and trenches stretching more than 42 kilometers (26 miles) — separating the territory it controls from the rest of Gaza. The barrier extends well beyond the original yellow line and covers 85% of its length, effectively moving the de facto « border » deeper into Gaza. Experts told the BBC that the earthworks suggest Israel is planning for a long occupation of the strip.
Satellite imagery shows that Israeli forces have leveled the vast majority of buildings in the zone under their control, virtually erasing several towns and Rafah, once home to more than a quarter million people. Almost the entire population of Gaza — more than 2 million people — has been squeezed into vast, squalid tent cities dependent on international aid, confined to a tiny strip of land along the coast.
The Core Dispute: Sequencing and Sovereignty
The fundamental impasse centers on the sequencing of disarmament and withdrawal — and on the deeper question of Gaza’s political future.
Israel’s position: Hamas must be fully and genuinely disarmed — surrendering heavy weapons, light weapons, all weapons, and decommissioning tunnels — before Israeli forces withdraw from any territory. Netanyahu has rejected the roadmap’s linkage between phased disarmament and phased withdrawal, insisting on complete disarmament as a precondition.
Hamas’s position: Disarmament is contingent on Israel ending « all forms of aggression » and withdrawing its forces to the yellow line as defined by the October 2025 ceasefire. Hamas has committed to a gradual, sequential process but will not disarm unilaterally while Israeli forces occupy the territory.
The Board of Peace’s position: The roadmap links disarmament to a phased Israeli withdrawal, with the International Verification Committee certifying completion of each phase. However, the Board has also stated that withdrawal beyond the yellow line will take place only once decommissioning is complete — a formulation that appears to align more closely with Israel’s sequencing demand.
Beyond the mechanics of sequencing, Netanyahu’s categorical rejection of a Palestinian state — « not in Gaza and not in the West Bank » — strikes at the heart of the roadmap’s stated aim of facilitating « a credible political path that achieves self-determination and the establishment of a Palestinian state. »
What Happens Next
The rejection leaves the peace process at a critical impasse. Trump’s announcement on 31 July was framed as a breakthrough, but Netanyahu’s categorical rejection on 9 August underscores the depth of disagreement between the United States and its closest Middle Eastern ally over the terms and trajectory of Gaza’s postwar future.
Several factors will shape what comes next:
- Continued US diplomatic engagement: The Board of Peace remains engaged, with Mladenov describing the process as entering the « hard phase. » The US has invested significant diplomatic capital in the roadmap and is unlikely to abandon it easily.
- Hamas’s response: Hamas has conditionally accepted the disarmament framework but has tied its implementation to Israeli withdrawal. Israel’s rejection may strengthen Hamas’s argument that disarmament without withdrawal would be suicidal.
- Israel’s territorial expansion: Every day that the impasse continues, Israel’s footprint in Gaza grows. The construction of the earthen barrier and the expansion beyond the yellow line suggest a de facto annexation strategy that may become increasingly difficult to reverse.
- The humanitarian crisis: With more than 2 million Palestinians confined to a shrinking strip of coastal land and dependent on international aid, the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. The roadmap’s promise of reconstruction and the restoration of normal life remains unfulfilled.
- International pressure: The roadmap is anchored in UN Security Council Resolution 2803 (2025), giving it the weight of international law. How the international community responds to Israel’s rejection — and whether it applies meaningful pressure — will be a determining factor.
Context: The October 2025 Ceasefire
The current impasse is the latest chapter in a conflict that has devastated Gaza since the October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel and Israel’s subsequent military assault. The US-brokered ceasefire signed in October 2025 was intended to end the cycle of destruction, but its implementation has been fraught with disputes over the second phase — including the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of Gaza.
The ceasefire agreement established the yellow line as a temporary demarcation, with Israel controlling approximately 53% of the territory and Hamas administering the rest. The agreement envisioned an eventual full Israeli withdrawal, the deployment of an International Stabilization Force, and the transfer of governance to an independent Palestinian administration.
Instead, Israel has expanded its territorial control to nearly 70%, continued military operations, and now rejected the roadmap designed to move the process forward — insisting that Hamas disarm completely before any withdrawal, a condition that effectively reverses the ceasefire’s intended sequencing and leaves the peace process in limbo.
Reporting by Marco, Eugenia Yosef and Tim Lister. Additional reporting from CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Associated Press, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post, and Ynet News.