Netanyahu: Israel rejects Trump’s roadmap on Hamas disarmament

The Israel Defense Forces will not carry out any withdrawal from the Gaza Strip until the Hamas terrorist organization is fully disarmed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. “Israel rejects the 15-point document”, Netanyahu said during a Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, referring to the disarmament roadmap announced by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace on July 30.

Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen said on Saturday that “Hamas is planning a deception. Hamas will say that it intends to abide by the agreement, hand over some of its weapons, and obtain what we used to call, in the language of the past, a hudna. [But] the era of hudna is over,” Cohen told Israel’s Channel 14 broadcaster.

“Hudna” means truce or armistice in Arabic. Hamas has used ceasefires in the past only to regroup ahead of renewed assaults on the Jewish state. Cohen continued, “Ultimately, Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization. We do not believe a single piece of paper that Hamas [signs].”