Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a US-backed 15-point roadmap for Gaza on Sunday, saying Israeli forces would not withdraw until Hamas had surrendered every category of weapon.

“Israel does not accept the 15-point document,” Netanyahu told a televised cabinet meeting. The Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed”, he said, specifying “heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry”.

“We are talking about genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament,” he added.

The rejection challenges US President Donald Trump’s announcement last month that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the roadmap. Israeli officials had previously expressed reservations, but Netanyahu’s remarks made the government’s opposition explicit.

The plan, published by Trump’s Board of Peace on 30 July, requires Israel to complete its remaining commitments under the Sharm el-Sheikh ceasefire protocol, including halting military operations. Hamas and other Palestinian factions would also cease armed activity and transfer Gaza’s civilian and security administration to a technocratic Palestinian committee.

A verified process to decommission heavy weapons, production sites, weapons depots and tunnels would begin after the Palestinian committee entered Gaza and an international stabilisation force deployed.

That process would be linked to a phased Israeli withdrawal. An international committee would verify each stage, and only the Palestinian administration would be permitted to control weapons in Gaza once implementation was complete.

The principal disagreement therefore concerns sequencing. The roadmap provides for reciprocal, verified stages of disarmament and Israeli withdrawal, while Netanyahu says no Israeli pullback can occur before Hamas has been completely disarmed.

Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to discuss its objections with Washington.

“They have ideas. Some of them are acceptable to us and some are unacceptable to us,” he said. “We can and know how to stand our ground even against our very best friends when necessary.”

Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told Reuters that the group remained committed to the roadmap agreed with mediators in Cairo. He urged the mediators and the United States to press Netanyahu’s government to comply.

Hamas has avoided describing the arrangement as “disarmament”. It says weapons would be decommissioned and stored under the authority of the US-backed Palestinian administration, and that Israel must first halt attacks and fulfil its commitments on withdrawal and humanitarian aid.

Israel has sharply reduced its attacks in Gaza since 3 August, when Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov met Netanyahu. A source familiar with Israel’s position told Reuters that its forces had agreed to act only against what they considered immediate threats and to halt near-daily targeted killings.

More than 1,250 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began in October 2025, most of them civilians, according to Gaza health officials. Israel says its operations target armed groups and threats to its forces.

Netanyahu is campaigning for re-election before Israel’s 27 October vote and faces pressure from far-right coalition partners opposed to withdrawing troops or beginning Gaza’s reconstruction before Hamas is dismantled.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich welcomed the rejection and said the military should not withdraw “even a millimetre” before Hamas was disarmed.

Netanyahu also repeated his opposition to a Palestinian state in Gaza or the occupied West Bank. The US-backed roadmap says its implementation should create conditions for a credible path towards Palestinian self-determination and statehood.

The roadmap’s detailed timetable was due to be finalised within 14 days of approval by all parties. Netanyahu’s rejection leaves that approval — and the sequence of disarmament and withdrawal — unresolved.