The Israel Defence Forces will not carry out any withdrawal from the Gaza Strip until the Hamas terrorist organization is fully disarmed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said during a Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, referring to the disarmament roadmap announced by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on July 30.
Disarming the Iranian-backed terrorist group means that Hamas gives up its “heavy weapons, the less heavy weapons, all the weapons,” he reiterated, saying there had to be “real disarmament, not fictitious disarmament.”
Jerusalem is discussing the matter with the Trump administration, the premier said, adding that the Americans “have ideas, some of them acceptable to us and some not acceptable to us.”
The IDF will continue to thwart threats against Israeli forces and civilians, he vowed.
Israeli Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen said on Saturday that Jerusalem opposes the 15-point Roadmap for Gaza “in its current form,” adding that “Hamas is planning a deception.”
Hamas “will say that it intends to abide by the agreement, hand over some of its weapons, and obtain what we used to call, in the language of the past, a hudna. (But) the era of hudna is over,” Cohen told Israel’s Channel 14 broadcaster.
“Hudna” means truce or armistice in Arabic. Hamas has used ceasefires in the past only to regroup ahead of renewed assaults on the Jewish state.
Cohen continued, “Ultimately, Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization. We do not believe a single piece of paper that Hamas (signs).”
Hamas violated the Gaza ceasefire 17 times in a single day, Doron Spielman, Netanyahu’s international spokesman, said on Saturday.
Citing a situation report he received shortly before an interview with Newsmax host Tom Basile, Spielman noted the Friday violations included attempted infiltrations across the Yellow Line to carry out attacks on Israelis, as well as tunnelling and rearming.
He added that the terrorist organization is in blatant violation of the 20-point plan brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, which requires Hamas to lay down its arms.
Spielman drew a sharp distinction between the Trump framework, to which Israel agreed, and the 15-point BoP proposal reached with Hamas terrorists through Qatar, Turkey and Egypt. Jerusalem is not a party to the newer plan, he said.
Netanyahu publicly rejected the 15-point framework last week, stating that no Israeli withdrawal will occur before full disarmament.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas informed the Trump administration that it agrees to the terms of the Roadmap, which requires the terrorist group to lay down its weapons and transfer rule over Gaza to a technocratic Palestinian body, AFP reported.
“Hamas and other factions have confirmed to mediators their readiness to begin implementing the agreement and move to the second phase, provided it receives Israeli approval and that Israel begins implementing the agreement,” a Hamas official told the news agency.
“Hamas is urging the U.S. administration to exert pressure on Israel to compel it to abide by the agreement and move to the second phase,” the unnamed terrorist continued.
On Thursday, Netanyahu pledged that Israel will not pull back from its current positions in the Gaza Strip until Hamas is completely disarmed.
“I am standing firm on our security interests: We will not withdraw from our current lines until Hamas is completely disarmed,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language video posted to his Facebook page.
He added that IDF soldiers had been instructed “to do everything necessary to defend themselves, to defend our territory, to defend our citizens.”
U.S. President Donald Trump and his team believe they can persuade Hamas to demilitarize the Gaza Strip, he said, adding, “We are examining that.”
