Cracks Appear: Netanyahu Suddenly Angry with Trump, Rejects US Plan for Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again reaffirmed his rejection of Donald Trump’s latest Gaza plan. The rejection was delivered directly in a televised address to his right-wing government on Sunday.
Citing Reuters on Monday (10/08/2026), Netanyahu firmly voiced his objections to the peace draft at the start of a meeting with cabinet ministers. He also stressed that a troop withdrawal would never occur before the Palestinian resistance factions surrendered their weapons.
“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” he asserted. “The military will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed, meaning heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry.”
Netanyahu added that Israel is currently in intensive talks with the US regarding the plan. He stressed that the Israeli side has sorted through ideas from Washington that they can tolerate.
“They (the US) have ideas, some of which we can accept and some of which we cannot accept, and we know how to stand firm against these things,” he said.
Netanyahu’s hardline stance in rejecting the peace roadmap has received full support from his coalition partners. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, publicly praised the Prime Minister’s move.
“We are fighting with a central objective: the destruction of Hamas,” he said.
“The military cannot retreat a single millimetre from the Gaza Strip,” he concluded.
Netanyahu is currently struggling in various opinion polls ahead of his bid for re-election on 27 October. He is now caught between the demands of right-wing ministers and his main military backer, Trump, who wants a resolution to the conflict.
Despite Netanyahu’s tough rhetoric, the Israeli military has reportedly reduced the scale of its attacks in the Gaza Strip since last Monday. Security forces are now limiting military operations to direct threats only and have halted targeted killings due to pressure from the US President.
The tactical de-escalation came after Nikolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy for the Trump Peace Council, held a meeting with Netanyahu. Mladenov on Sunday also confirmed that discussions on refining the new roadmap were still ongoing.
Last month, Trump announced a breakthrough in ending the war that was previously claimed to have been agreed by Israel and Hamas. The 15-point plan includes the withdrawal of Israeli troops, the disarmament of Hamas, and the deployment of an International Stabilisation Force.
However, Hamas has strongly avoided using the term “disarmament” within the framework of the agreement. They have only agreed to hand over weapons to be stored under a Palestinian technocratic administration with oversight from the Trump Peace Council.
Hamas stressed that their agreement would depend heavily on Israel’s willingness to fulfil troop withdrawal commitments first. Responding to Israel’s manoeuvres, senior Hamas official Basem Naim confirmed that his group remains committed to the Cairo roadmap.
“We expect the mediators and the US guarantors to pressure Netanyahu and his government to comply with the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons,” he said.
For context, more than 1,250 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since the US-mediated ceasefire in October 2025. Israel has also reportedly occupied and emptied two-thirds of the enclave, forcing 2 million Gazans to live in dire conditions in coastal tent camps.