Prime Minister Netanyahu rejected a peace plan drawn up by a U.S.-led peace commission.
Published August 10, 2026
US President Donald Trump briefly commented on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s outright rejection of a 15-point peace plan for Gaza drafted by a US-led peace commission.
President Trump insisted on Monday that his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “very good” despite his firing.
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“We have a very good relationship,” President Trump said in response to a barrage of questions from reporters after an Oval Office event at the White House in Washington.
After more than a week of gradually mounting criticism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to oppose the Gaza plan, which calls for Israel to begin withdrawing its troops in parallel with the disarmament of Hamas.
Opinion polls show that the Gaza plan is unpopular with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing supporters, and far-right members of his cabinet have urged him to scrap it.
President Trump announced a break from the U.S.-led ceasefire late last month, saying Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip had handed over weapons to a new Palestinian governing body and that Israel had accepted a phased plan to begin withdrawing troops in parallel with disarmament aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which began in October 2023.
When the peace commission first released the blueprint on July 31, Netanyahu remained silent for several days, but later acknowledged that the Trump administration had “sent me a draft” and that he did not agree with it. But Sunday was the first time an Israeli prime minister formally announced his rejection of this support.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is truly disarmed… and will continue to thwart the threat to our forces and our people,” adding that Israel was “discussing this issue with the Americans” and vowed that “there will be no Palestinian state as long as I am prime minister.”
Netanyahu’s comments signal a widening public policy rift between the United States and Israel over Tel Aviv’s hard power strategy. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Al Jazeera’s Patti Culhane said Netanyahu was playing a “very dangerous game” with President Trump. Culhane said Israel is becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States because the Democratic Party is “leaning heavily toward the Palestinian cause.”
On Monday, peace committee officials said the Gaza plan remained operational.
“This process is based on on-the-ground implementation and verification,” the official told Reuters. “Consultations with Israel are continuing, and the framework is designed to proceed to each stage only if the necessary commitments are achieved. A roadmap has been developed between the Peace Committee and Hamas, and consultations with Israel continue. Israel is not required to rely on confidence or take irreversible action before field-tested measures are taken.”
Al Jazeera reached out to the White House and the US State Department for comment on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s remarks, but did not receive a response at the time of writing.
