Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the 15-point Gaza plan presented by Donald Trump’s so-called Board of Peace, saying Israel will not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed.
DR reports that Israel has turned down the 15-point plan drawn up by Trump’s peace council. The rejection follows Trump’s earlier statement that a deal had been reached on the full disarmament of Hamas and an Israeli withdrawal from the enclave.
Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would not pull back before Hamas is effectively disarmed, according to The Guardian. BBC News also reported that he ruled out any military withdrawal until the group is genuinely disarmed.
Per DR, the core dispute is over sequencing. The plan left unclear whether an Israeli withdrawal would come before, during or after a partial disarmament of Hamas.
Hamas has said it is willing to deposit its weapons under the supervision of a Palestinian transitional committee. That offer was conditional on Israel ending its military operations in Gaza, DR notes.
Danish experts on the deadlock
Isabel Bramsen, associate professor and head of Peace and Conflict Studies at Lund University, told DR that attention now turns to Trump’s response. She said the already cool relations between the two leaders could mean more American pressure on Israel, followed by a return to the negotiating table.
Bramsen described Hamas’s willingness to deposit its weapons as significant progress, provided Israel withdraws gradually. She added that it is hard to imagine talks advancing much before the Israeli election at the end of October.
Hans Henrik Fafner, international editor at the online outlet POV, said Netanyahu appears not to trust Hamas’s disarmament pledge. As he explained to DR, weapons deposited under a transitional committee would still be within reach if Israeli forces left the enclave.
Fafner also pointed to deep distrust of Hamas among the Israeli public, citing earlier agreements that were not honored. He said Netanyahu needs guarantees that a deal will be implemented, and needs to present the outcome as a victory ahead of the October parliamentary election.
Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, senior researcher in American foreign policy at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said the rejection undermines Trump’s narrative as a president who can deliver peace. He said the timing is inconvenient for Trump, who faces weak polling and rising inflation before the midterm elections.
According to Sinding Søndergaard, the key question is whether Trump will apply further pressure, above all through military support for Israel. He said the worst outcome for Trump would be to press hard and still fail to secure the result he wants.
DR states that Trump had not commented on the rejection at the time of publication. The Gaza peace plan had been promoted by the White House as a breakthrough, with Trump and Netanyahu last meeting there in September 2025.
