Netanyahu rejects Trump's 15-point Gaza plan, says troops stay until Hamas disarms
Israel's leader publicly refused the swap at the center of the deal his own government signed onto last month: Hamas gives up its guns while Israeli forces pull back.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, Aug. 9, that Israel will not accept Donald Trump's plan for Gaza. The plan would take Hamas's weapons away and set up a Palestinian body to govern the territory. "I have heard people saying: 'You didn't say it.' So here I am saying it again: Israel does not accept" the plan, he said. He added that Israeli troops will not leave Gaza until Hamas is "genuinely" disarmed. The plan came from Trump's Board of Peace, the group that oversees the deal. It announced an agreement last month built on a single trade: Hamas hands over its guns at the same moment Israeli troops leave. Netanyahu's objection is the order. He wants Hamas stripped of weapons first and the pullout only after — the reverse of what the American plan calls for.
What the 15-point plan was supposed to do:
- Trump's Board of Peace, the body that oversees the deal, announced it in July 2026 — about three weeks before Netanyahu's public rejection.
- The plan pairs the handover of Hamas weapons with an Israeli pullout at the same time, not one after the other.
- It also calls for a Palestinian authority to govern Gaza. Netanyahu rejected that along with the weapons terms.
- The U.S. sends Israel about $3.8 billion a year in military aid, under a 10-year agreement signed in 2016 under Barack Obama. That gives Washington leverage it has rarely used in public.
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