Israel “rejects” the Board of Peace Gaza disarmament roadmap, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, pushing back against claims the country has accepted the US-backed proposal and saying that he has no issue with standing up to pressure from US President Donald Trump pressure to accept the terms.

“I want to clarify here,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “Israel rejects the 15-point document.”

The US-backed Board of Peace is trying to move forward with its roadmap for postwar Gaza, which Hamas has accepted, while calling on the US and other mediators to pressure Israel into agreement. The terror group has avoided the use of the term “disarmament,” saying instead that it agrees to hand over weapons to be stored under a US-backed Palestinian technocrat administration that would run affairs in Gaza under the supervision of the Board of Peace.

Israeli officials warn that the terror organization is exploiting the process to prevent renewed Israeli military action, with top officials reportedly calling Hamas’s agreement to the deal a “strategic ambush” of Israel.

While the security cabinet last month approved having an International Stabilization Force enter Gaza to disarm Hamas and assume control of the territory, senior Israeli officials and ministers have publicly urged the premier to openly declare that he will not accept the terms of the plan, which would see the IDF begin to pull back from Gazan territory.

“I heard people saying, ‘You didn’t say so,'” Netanyahu told his cabinet Sunday. “So here I am saying it again: Israel rejects the 15-point document.”

“The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is........

© The Times of Israel