WASHINGTON – The U.S.-backed body overseeing U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan is standing by the reciprocal steps at its heart after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected them, setting up a test of Washington’s leverage over its closest Middle East ally.
Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would not withdraw forces from Gaza until Hamas has been fully disarmed, directly rejecting the sequencing laid out in the 15-point roadmap unveiled last month by the Trump-backed Board of Peace.
“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.”
Asked whether Netanyahu’s position was consistent with the Trump-backed framework, the U.S. State Department declined to comment and referred MBN’s questions to the Board of Peace, which is overseeing its implementation.
An official with the board, speaking on condition of anonymity, told MBN that the Gaza peace roadmap was “advancing” and would still be based on the original plans for “verification on the ground and phased, reciprocal commitments.”
“Discussions with Israel are continuing, and the framework is designed so that each stage only moves forward once the required commitments have been met,” the official said. “We maintain excellent communication with Israel and effective cooperation on elements critical to the advancement of the plan.”
The response stopped short of directly addressing Netanyahu’s public rejection of the 15-point document. But the board’s consistent emphasis on phased and mutual concessions preserves the sequencing laid out in the roadmap: Hamas disarms in discrete stages, paving the way for reciprocal withdrawals by Israeli forces.
Netanyahu has cast his resistance as part of a broader refusal to yield to outside pressure, decrying a “wave of rumours about Israeli weakness and Israeli withdrawals on all fronts” and pushing back on U.S. efforts to wind down conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran without Israel’s agreement.
That posture comes with Netanyahu’s political future at stake in Israel’s Oct. 27 Knesset elections, giving him little room to appear to be conceding on security.
Still, the disagreement is ultimately not over whether Hamas should disarm – a goal Israel and the United States share – but about whether the Israeli withdrawal will proceed alongside the disarmament, or only after it has been completed.
The roadmap was designed to bridge the distrust between the sides by making concessions from both conditional on verified steps rather than promises.
Nikolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s envoy for Gaza, has described the process as proceeding “sector by sector,” with Israeli forces withdrawing “step by step” where the board verifies disarmament. Netanyahu’s position undercuts that logic by making full disarmament by Hamas, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., a prerequisite for withdrawal.
In any case, the public disagreement has not engendered a broader rupture between Israel and those overseeing the U.S.-backed plan. Netanyahu has indicated that talks with American officials are continuing, while making clear that Israel does not regard the plan as settled. Washington put forward ideas, “some of which are acceptable to us and some of which are unacceptable,” he said.
The dilemma is a familiar one for a U.S. administration: what to do when Israel rejects terms Washington considers central to a high-profile diplomatic initiative. The United States has extensive military and diplomatic leverage over Israel but it is not clear whether Trump is prepared to use it to defend the plan.
For Netanyahu, accepting withdrawals before Hamas is disarmed carries obvious risks ahead of elections. His right-wing allies have backed his refusal to pull out before Hamas gives up all its weapons, and the prime minister himself has long made the group’s complete disarmament a condition for ending Israel’s occupation.
That creates competing pressures on both leaders. Trump needs Israeli cooperation to demonstrate that his Gaza framework can move from a ceasefire toward a lasting political settlement, while Netanyahu faces strong domestic incentives to show that his government has not gone soft on Hamas.
For now, at least, the Board of Peace is publicly treating the disagreement as something to be managed rather than a breakdown in the process.
