Netanyahu rejects Trump's Gaza plan as unacceptable

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's latest Gaza plan in televised remarks to his government on Sunday, Reuters reported, as Israel's military scaled back attacks in Gaza under U.S. pressure. Netanyahu is caught between far-right coalition partners angered by concessions to Hamas and Trump, who wants faster progress toward ending the war.

Why did Netanyahu reject Trump's Gaza plan?

Netanyahu said Israel does not accept the 15-point plan and will not withdraw its forces from Gaza until Hamas gives up all weaponry, heavy and light. He made the same objection in a social media post two days earlier, and Israeli officials have shared these reservations with Washington directly.

Netanyahu is struggling in the polls ahead of an election due on October 27. He is squeezed between far-right ministers who oppose any concessions in Gaza and Trump, his key military backer, who is pushing for progress toward ending the conflict.

Israel has scaled back its attacks in Gaza since Monday, when Nikolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy for Trump's Board of Peace overseeing the ceasefire, met with Netanyahu. A source familiar with Israel's position said the military had agreed to act only against immediate threats and to stop the targeted assassinations it had been carrying out on a near-daily basis. Mladenov said Sunday that discussions on the new roadmap were continuing.

What does Trump's Gaza roadmap propose?

Trump announced last month that his plan to end the war had reached a breakthrough, with both Israel and Hamas agreeing to it. Under the roadmap, Israeli forces would withdraw as Hamas disarms, while an International Stabilization Force works alongside a new Palestinian police force to secure the territory.

Complications have emerged quickly over the plan's timeline. "Israel does not accept the 15-point document," Netanyahu told cabinet ministers, adding that the military will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed of all weaponry. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich backed Netanyahu's position, saying in a statement that Israel went to war to destroy Hamas and that its forces "cannot withdraw even a millimeter" from Gaza.

What does Hamas say about the Gaza roadmap?

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters that the group remains committed to the roadmap agreed in Cairo 10 days ago. He said mediators and the U.S. should press Netanyahu's government to follow the roadmap rather than obstruct it for domestic political reasons.

Trump said last month that Hamas, which is backed by Iran and ruled Gaza for nearly two decades before the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, had agreed to lay down its weapons. Hamas avoids the term "disarmament," saying instead that it agreed to hand weapons over to a U.S.-backed Palestinian technocrat administration that would run Gaza under the supervision of Trump's Board of Peace. The group said its commitment to the plan depends on Israel first meeting its own obligations, including troop withdrawal and an end to attacks.

What is the toll since the Gaza ceasefire began?

Israel had vowed to hunt down militants involved in the October 2023 attack before halting its targeted strikes on Monday. Since the U.S.-mediated ceasefire took effect in October 2025, more than 1,250 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Hamas has not disclosed how many of its fighters have been killed, while four Israeli soldiers have died in Gaza during this period.

Israeli troops have occupied and depopulated two-thirds of the Gaza Strip. Nearly all of its more than 2 million residents are now confined to a narrow strip of land under Hamas control along the coast, most living in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.