Netanyahu Rejects Trump's Gaza Plan, Demands Hamas Disarm

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Netanyahu Rejects Trump's Gaza Plan, Hamas Wants Washington to Pressure Israel Instead

The Pakistan Times — Islamabad, August 9, 2026

Just over a week after Trump's Board of Peace announced what it called a historic breakthrough on Gaza, Netanyahu stood up at a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem and rejected the actual 15-point plan built around that breakthrough. He wanted to be precise about it too, telling ministers Israel does not accept the document, and that Israeli troops aren't pulling out of Gaza until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, not some partial or symbolic version of disarmament.

The gap between what Trump announced and what Netanyahu is now saying comes down to sequencing. Trump's roadmap, published at the end of July, envisioned Israel's withdrawal and Hamas's disarmament happening together, as a phased process running in parallel. Netanyahu flipped that order publicly on Sunday, insisting the Israeli military won't move at all until Hamas hands over every weapon it has, heavy and light, calling anything less a fictitious disarmament rather than a real one.

Hamas isn't budging on its own sequencing either. Back when Trump first announced the deal, the group said it would only go through with full disarmament after Israel completely withdraws and stops all military operations, with heavier weapons coming later in the process and tied to eventual Palestinian statehood, something Netanyahu separately ruled out entirely for as long as he remains prime minister. A senior Hamas official said over the weekend the group remains committed to the roadmap it agreed to, and is now pushing Washington to actually lean on Israel to accept the plan's next phase rather than let Netanyahu rewrite the terms unilaterally.

There's also a domestic angle that's hard to ignore here. Netanyahu is heading into elections at the end of October, facing real pressure from his right-wing coalition partners, and polls currently show his coalition at risk of losing its majority. Hardening his public stance on Hamas disarmament right now lines up pretty neatly with that political timeline, according to analysts tracking the story. Interestingly, some reporting suggests Trump's own Board of Peace had already quietly backed Netanyahu's version of events days earlier, saying Israeli forces wouldn't withdraw past the so-called yellow line until Hamas's weapons were fully decommissioned, which muddies the picture of just how unified Washington and Israel actually are on this.

For now, Israel still controls roughly 70 percent of Gaza according to Palestinian officials and aid groups on the ground, and Netanyahu says talks with the Americans are ongoing, with some of Washington's ideas acceptable to Israel and others not. Whether Trump's team pushes back on Netanyahu's rejection or quietly adjusts the plan to match it is probably the thing worth watching closest over the next few weeks.

Read More:Swat Suicide Blast Kills Seven Outside Police Station

Sources: Washington Post, NBC News, CNN, Al Jazeera

© The Pakistan Times. All rights reserved.

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