Netanyahu rejects Gaza plan, in new break from Trump
After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the US-led Gaza peace plan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly opposed it in the face of pushback from his right-wing base.
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JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday (Aug 9) rejected a United States-led Gaza plan endorsed by Hamas, taking fresh distance from US President Donald Trump as he faces razor-tight elections.
After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, Netanyahu explicitly opposed it in the face of pushback from his right-wing base.
"Israel rejects the 15-point document," Netanyahu said, referring to a plan signed off on by Hamas in late July.
The Israeli military "will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens", Netanyahu said at a Cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu described Trump, with whom he has also had a growing break on Iran, as "our greatest friend in the White House" - but quickly made clear he was willing to challenge him.
He said Israel was raising its objections to the Gaza plan with the US.
"They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these matters," he said.
Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, is running even or trailing in some polls ahead of Oct 27 elections, the country's first since the devastating Oct 7, 2023, attack by Hamas.
Polls show that the Gaza plan is widely unpopular with Netanyahu's right-wing base and far-right members of his Cabinet having urged him to call a new vote to kill the Gaza plan.
Hamas, days after selecting a new leader, Khalil al-Hayya, announced it supported the Gaza plan, and has since called on Washington to push Netanyahu to accept it.
"We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons," Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau, told AFP.
Hamas said in a statement that it was still committed to the plan.
GROWING FRICTION WITH TRUMP
Netanyahu until recently campaigned on the strength of his relationship with Trump, who since his first term has taken unprecedented steps to back Israel, including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
Trump joined Netanyahu in late February in attacking Iran. But the two diverged when Trump sought a ceasefire with Iran in April as the war sapped his popularity at home and sent oil prices soaring.
Netanyahu told his Cabinet that "with an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons", a goal he has long alleged Tehran is pursuing.
Netanyahu last week also ordered fresh strikes on Lebanon in response to what Israel called a ceasefire violation by Iran-backed Hezbollah, just as Israel and Lebanon were holding US-mediated talks.
The Gaza plan was the latest stage in a US-brokered ceasefire announced in October that has reduced but not ended Israeli operations in Gaza.
Hamas said it would surrender weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing body. The plan said Israel would begin pulling out forces in tandem with the disarmament, a timeline it adamantly rejected.
After meeting Netanyahu last week, Trump's body implementing the deal, dubbed the Board of Peace, backtracked and said Israel would only need to withdraw after "complete" disarmament, but it was apparently not enough for the Israeli leader.
"We are talking about real disarmament, not fictitious disarmament," he said on Sunday.
ISRAELI OFFENSIVE
Egypt, a key mediator, called on all sides to "honour their commitments" and refrain from action that could jeopardise progress, in a call between Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and the Board of Peace's high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov.
Despite Netanyahu's stance, Israel appears to have decreased operations in Gaza since the deal was announced, but has not halted them completely.
Israeli gunfire on Sunday injured a child who was taken to hospital in Khan Yunis, civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said
Israeli operations in Gaza have killed 1,258 Palestinians since the ceasefire, according to the territory's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period.
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