JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a US-led Gaza plan endorsed by Hamas, taking fresh distance from President Donald Trump as he faces razor-tight elections.
After more than a weelc of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, Netanyahu explicitly opposed it in the face of pushback from his rightwing base.
‘Israel rejects the 15-point document,’ Netanyahu said, referring to a plan signed off on by Hamas in late July.
The Israeli military ‘will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens’, Netanyahusaid at a cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu described Trump, with whom he has also had a growing breal< on Iran, as ‘our greatest friend in the White House’, but quickly made it clear he was willing to challenge him.
He said Israel was raising its objections to the Gaza plan with the United States.
‘They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these matters,’ he said.
Growing friction with Trump Netanyahu until recently campaigned on the strength ofhis relationship with Trump, who since his first term has taken unprecedented steps to back Israel,including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
Trump joined Netanyahu in late Februaryin attackingIran.But the two diverged when Trump sought a ceasefire with Iran in April as thewar sapped his popularity at home and sent oil prices soaring.
Netanyahu told his cabinet that ‘with an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons’, a goal he has long alleged Tehran is pursuing.
Netanyahu last week also ordered f resh strikes on Le banon in response to what Israel called a ceasefire violation by Hezbollah, just as Israel and Lebanon were holding US-mediated talks.
The Gaza plan was the latest stage in a US-brokered ceasefire announced in October that has reduced but not ended Israeli operations in Gaza.
Trump had described as a ‘major milestone’ the agreement by Hamas to surrender weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing body.
The plan said Israel would begin pulling out forces in tandem with the disarmament, a timeline adamantly rejected by Israel.-AFP