Jerusalem, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a plan for Gaza championed by President Donald Trump, and vowed no military pullout until Hamas is "genuinely" disarmed.
After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, Netanyahu explicitly opposed it as he faced pushback from his right-wing base ahead of Israel's October elections.
"Israel rejects the 15-point document," Netanyahu said, referring to a peace plan championed by Trump and endorsed 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 during a cabinet meeting.
The document, the latest stage in a US-led ceasefire announced in October that has failed to stop Israel from launching deadly attacks against civilian population centers across Gaza, said Hamas would surrender weapons to a Palestinian governing body.
The plan said Israel would begin pulling out forces in tandem with the disarmament, an idea adamantly rejected by Israel, which wants to see Hamas' weapons destroyed.
After meeting Netanyahu last week, Trump's Board of Peace backtracked and said Israel would only need to withdraw after Hamas' "complete" disarmament.
Netanyahu, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court and has been found to have committed genocide and ethnic cleansing, is facing calls from his far-right allies to end the Gaza plan.
He said Israel was speaking with the United States about its objections.
"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 said Hamas must give up all of its weapons, a goal that Board of Peace members say is not realistically achievable.
"We are talking about real disarmament, not fictitious disarmament," Netanyahu said.