Netanyahu rejects US Gaza plan, vows no pullout until Hamas disarms

JERUSALEM, Aug 9: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a US-led Gaza plan endorsed by Hamas, taking fresh distance from President Donald Trump as he faces razor-tight elections.
After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, Netanyahu explicitly opposed it in the face of pushback from his right-wing base.
"Israel rejects the 15-point document," Netanyahu said, referring to a plan signed off on by Hamas in late July.
The Israeli military "will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens," Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu described Trump, with whom he has also had a growing break on Iran, as "our greatest friend in the White House" -- but quickly made clear he was willing to challenge him.
He said Israel was raising its objections to the Gaza plan with the United States.
"They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these matters," he said.
Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving leader, is running even or trailing in some polls ahead of October 27 elections, the country's first since the devastating October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
Polls show that the Gaza plan is widely unpopular with Netanyahu's right-wing base and far-right members of his cabinet having urged him to call a new vote to kill the Gaza plan.
Hamas, days after selecting a new leader, Khalil al-Hayya, announced it supported the Gaza plan. It called on the United States to pressure Netanyahu.
"We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons," BassemNaim, a member of Hamas's political bureau, told AFP.
Trump joined Netanyahu in late February in attacking Iran. But the two diverged when Trump sought a ceasefire with Iran in April as the war sapped his popularity at home and sent oil prices soaring.
Netanyahu told his cabinet that "with an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons", a goal he has long alleged Tehran is pursuing.
The Gaza plan was the latest stage in a US-brokered ceasefire announced in October that has reduced but not ended Israeli operations in Gaza.
Trump had described as a "major milestone" the agreement by Hamas to surrender weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing body.
The plan said Israel would begin pulling out forces in tandem with the disarmament, a timeline adamantly rejected by Israel.
Reuters adds, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a final bid to shore up right-wing support ahead of a knife-edge vote on Tuesday, said he would not permit a Palestinian state to be created under his watch if he is re-elected.
Trailing his centre-left opponent Isaac Herzog in opinion polls, the three-term leader has sought to shift the focus away from socioeconomic issues and on to security challenges, saying he alone can defend Israel.
Having previously hinted that he would accept a Palestinian state, Netanyahu reversed course on Monday, citing risks that he linked to the regional spread of Islamist militancy. He said that if he is re-elected, the Palestinians would not get the independent state they seek in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.�"AFP