Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looked at President Donald Trump's new 15-point Gaza plan and said no. The Israeli prime minister's objection is simple enough: Hamas must be fully disarmed before Israeli troops leave Gaza.
He added that Israel was in talks with the United States on the plan. "They (the U.S.) have ideas, some of which are acceptable to us and some of which are unacceptable to us and we know how to stand firm against these things," Netanyahu said.
In an interview with Israeli N12 News, Mladenov said Israel would be required to withdraw "sector by sector" once weapons have been taken from Hamas and rendered unusable.
Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters on Sunday that the group remained committed to the roadmap agreed 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," he said.
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 millimetre from 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.
Heavy weapons, light weapons, all of them.
Hamas wants Israel to start withdrawing while the disarmament process unfolds. After October 7, Netanyahu has every reason to distrust that sequence.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostages. Israel eventually brought all living and deceased hostages home, but no peace document can erase what happened.
Hamas crossed a border, slaughtered civilians, kidnapped families, and then spent years forcing Israel to prove its desire for peace to government and activists thousands of miles away.
Trump deserves credit for trying to end the conflict. He has pushed Israel to scale back operations, and his plan attempts to pair Hamas disarmament with a phased Israel withdrawal and a new security structure in Gaza.
The problem is trust; Hamas still avoids the word "disarmament" and says implementation depends on Israel first meeting commitments, including withdrawal and an end to attacks.
Netanyahu hears that and remembers what happened the last time Israelis believed that deterrence and warnings would hold.
Israel also has obligations; its military closed the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh to nonresidents Sunday after attacks by Israeli civilians from nearby communities, with the restriction also aimed at Israelis.
Violence by those responsible should be stopped and punished. Defending Israel's right to survive doesn't require defending every action by every Israeli, and moral clarity works both ways.
Then there's the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in 2024 over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He hasn't been convicted of those crimes, which makes sense because how could a man commit such crimes when all he's doing is protecting his country and his people?
Still, the warrant has become a political weapon for people eager to speak of Netanyahu as a criminal while Hamas's October 7 atrocities fade into background noise.
Hamas said it agreed to the plan to avoid a resumption of war, but it added that the implementation of the deal would depend on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawal and halting attacks.
Israel had vowed to hunt down militants who had taken part in the October 2023 attack before halting the targeted attacks on Monday.
Since the U.S.-mediated ceasefire reached in October 2025, more than 1,250 people have been killed in the Israeli attacks, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Hamas has not disclosed the number of its fighters killed. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in this time in Gaza.
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.
How many murdered Israelis are required before self-defense stops being treated like evidence of guilt?
American politics makes the picture uglier. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, was censured by the House in 2023 after a resolution was introduced to condemn antisemitic rhetoric. Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed campaigned with Hassan Piker and has called for ending unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel.
For those voices, the Trump-Netanyahu disagreement offers a convenient opening. Trump can be attacked as weak if he avoids another escalation with Iran. Netanyahu can be attacked as bloodthirsty if he refuses to trust Hamas with guns.
Hamas, meanwhile, gets treated like a negotiating partner whose promises deserve another test. Trump said Sunday that his administration is currently "low-keying it" with Iran while economic pressure mounts.
Israel has already taken that test: more than 1,200 people paid the price on one morning.
Peace is worth pursuing; Hamas disarmament is what makes peace believable. Asking Israel to reverse that order is asking Israelis to gamble with lives they already learned can't be replaced.
If you value columns that cut through the political theater and confront the questions others would rather avoid, PJ Media VIP helps keep them coming. Right now, you can save 60% on your subscription with promo code FIGHT. Join us, support independent conservative journalism, and help us keep asking the questions Washington would rather ignore.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member