Netanyahu says Israel won't pull out of Gaza before Hamas disarms

By Steven Scheer and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime ‌Minister Benjamin Netanyahu restated his ​rejection of Donald ​Trump's latest Gaza plan in televised remarks to his right-wing government on Sunday, even as Israel's military has effectively halted attacks in the territory under pressure from the U.S. President.

Netanyahu is in campaign mode as he seeks re-election at a vote due on October 27 but is caught between ‌far-right ministers angered by concessions in Gaza and his key military backer, Trump, who wants progress toward ending the conflict there with ⁠a new 15-point peace plan.

Israel has scaled back attacks in Gaza since Monday, when Nikolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy for Trump's Board of Peace that oversees the Gaza ceasefire, met with Netanyahu.

A source familiar with Israel's position ‌said it had agreed that the military would only ‌act against what it perceives as immediate threats in Gaza and no longer carry out targeted assassinations as it had been doing on a near-daily basis.

ISRAEL AND HAMAS DISAGREE OVER TIMINGS IN TRUMP'S PLAN

Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, to which both Israel and ​Hamas agreed, with Israeli forces withdrawing as Hamas disarms and an International Stabilization Force working with a new Palestinian police force to secure the enclave.

But complications have swiftly emerged. Israel has said that Israeli troops in Gaza would not move before Hamas disarms. Hamas has insisted that Israel halt attacks before it begins implementing the part ⁠of the agreement dealing with its arms.

"Israel does not accept the 15-point document," Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting with cabinet ministers. The military "will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed ... it means heavy ​weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry.

"And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament," he said, noting that Israel is in talks with the United States on the plan. Netanyahu made similar remarks in a social media post on Tuesday.

"They (the U.S.) have ideas, some ​of which are acceptable to us and some of which are unacceptable to us," Netanyahu said ‌without elaborating.

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters on Sunday that the group remained committed to the roadmap agreed with mediators in Cairo 10 days ago.

"We expect the mediators and the U.S. guarantor to press Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap and ⁠not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons, while continuing to jeopardise the region's security and stability."

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised Netanyahu.

"We went to war with a central goal: the destruction of Hamas," he said in a statement. "The (military) cannot withdraw even a milimetre from the Gaza Strip. The Gaza Strip cannot begin any process of reconstruction before the complete dismantling and demobilization of ⁠Hamas and the Gaza Strip."

Trump said last month that Iran-backed Hamas, which ruled Gaza for nearly two decades before carrying out the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, ​had agreed to lay down its weapons.

Hamas avoids the use of the term "disarmament" and said the group agreed to hand over weapons to be stored under a U.S.-backed Palestinian technocrat administration that would run the affairs in Gaza under the supervision of Trump's Board of Peace.

Hamas said it agreed to the plan in order to spare the people in Gaza a possible resumption of war, but ‌it added that the implementation of the deal would depend on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawal.

Since the U.S.-mediated agreement reached in October to end the war, Israel had vowed to hunt down every militant who had taken part in the ‌October 2023 attack before stopping the targeted attacks on Monday.

More than 1,250 people have been killed in the Israeli attacks since the ceasefire, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Hamas has ⁠not disclosed the number of its fighters killed.

Israeli troops have occupied ‌and depopulated two-thirds of the enclave, leaving nearly all ​its more than 2 million residents confined to a tiny strip of land under Hamas control along the coast, most in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell and Alexander Cornwell; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Alexander Smith ‌and Philippa Fletcher)

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