Israel rejects Trump's Gaza peace plan, conditions withdrawal on Hamas disarmament

Israel's position is that Israeli forces will not pull back from positions inside Gaza until disarmament is verifiably achieved. Officials have framed the demand as a precondition rather than a negotiating point, complicating the timeline Trump had sought to project.

Trump unveiled the plan as part of a broader diplomatic push that also envisions the creation of a so-called Board of Peace, a multinational body intended to oversee transitional arrangements in Gaza and coordinate reconstruction and security guarantees. Details of the body's mandate, funding and membership have not been finalised.

The rejection deepens a months-long standoff that began when Trump first announced a US-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. Although that initial arrangement halted the worst of the fighting, progress on its follow-on provisions has stalled amid mutual recriminations over hostage releases, prisoner exchanges and the scope of Israeli operations.

Israeli officials have argued that Hamas retains significant military capability, including weapons caches and tunnel infrastructure, despite more than a year of airstrikes and ground operations. They say that any deal that fails to neutralise that capacity risks allowing the group to reconstitute after an Israeli pullback.

Hamas, for its part, has publicly insisted that any disarmament must be tied to a clear political horizon, including a defined end to Israeli occupation and a pathway toward Palestinian statehood. The group's leadership has framed surrender of weapons outside such a framework as unacceptable.

The impasse places the United States in a difficult mediating role. Trump has cast his plan as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lock in a lasting ceasefire, but without Israeli buy-in the proposal cannot move forward. US officials have held a series of calls with both sides in recent days, though none has produced a breakthrough.

Regional players, including Qatar and Egypt, who have acted as intermediaries in previous rounds of talks, are also engaging with both delegations. Diplomats familiar with the effort say back-channel discussions are continuing even as public positions harden.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza adds urgency to the diplomatic deadlock. Aid agencies operating in the territory have warned that reconstruction cannot meaningfully begin without a durable ceasefire and a security framework acceptable to both sides. Israel continues to control the entry of goods and personnel into the strip.

Analysts say the next test will come within days, when a US-led review of the Board of Peace's membership and terms is expected. Whether Israel attends that process, and under what conditions, will determine whether the Trump plan retains momentum or joins the long list of Gaza initiatives that have collapsed at the implementation stage.

For now, the Israeli rejection leaves the architecture of the proposed deal in limbo. Without movement on disarmament verification, or a softening of Israel's precondition, the US-led effort risks the same fate as previous rounds: an announcement followed by a slow fade into unresolved disagreement.