Netanyahu defends Trump’s Gaza plan to skeptical hardliners in his government, officials say
By Tal Shalev, CNN
Jerusalem (CNN) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended US President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan to skeptics in his hardline cabinet Tuesday evening, telling ministers that coordination with Washington “is closer than you think,” according to two Israeli officials who participated in the meeting and another official briefed on its contents.
“There is a very big opportunity here,” Netanyahu is said to have told the cabinet.
Netanyahu said in Washington this week that Israel supported the plan, but the Israeli cabinet hasn’t formally voted to accept the proposal and has yet to schedule the vote.
The Israeli leader arrived at the cabinet meeting directly after returning to the country from the United States amid harsh criticism from his right-wing political partners over the plan that was unveiled by Trump at the White House on Monday.
The sources told CNN that Netanyahu didn’t hold extensive discussion on the plan during the meeting, but he did address two of the main points of contention from his hardline coalition’s point of view: the possibility of recognizing future Palestinian statehood, as well as the disarmament of Hamas and demilitarization of Gaza.
Netanyahu told his ministers that the wording pertaining to a Palestinian state was “ambiguous,” the sources said.
“The Palestinian Authority (PA) is out,” he said, according to the officials. “Even on the ‘Board of Peace,’ no PA representatives will be appointed. Israel and the US are the ones who decide if it will meet the conditions, and there’s an entire wall of conditions.”
The so-called Board of Peace is described in the Trump proposal as a “international transitional body” that would oversee the implementation of the plan and be led by the US president.
Netanyahu said that the board would also be in charge of Hamas’ disarmament and Gaza’s demilitarization “in a process carried out with us. If they fail to do it – we will do it.”
“That’s agreed between Trump and me. It is tighter than you think. This will end either peacefully or by force, or by both,” the sources cited the prime minister as saying.
The 20-point proposal released by the White House provides no details of the process or body that will ensure Hamas decommissions its weapons. It states that “independent monitors” will supervise the decommissioning of Hamas weaponry.
According to another Israeli official, far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir told Netanyahu the agreement was “full of holes, does not achieve the objectives of the war and harms Israel’s security.” Ben Gvir raised objections to the Israeli military’s planned withdrawal from Gaza, the involvement of international forces and “the potential for a Palestinian state.”
“I understand you were under pressure, but you shouldn’t have come with such a hole-ridden agreement,” the source cited the minister as saying, adding that Ben Gvir’s statements contradict Netanyahu’s claims at the White House that the proposal achieves all of Israel’s war aims.
Netanyahu’s other far-right coalition partner, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, didn’t want to discuss the deal before “understanding the small details” and requested to hold a limited discussion on the plan. Smotrich wrote on X on Tuesday, however, that the plan is a “resounding diplomatic failure for Israel that will end in tears,” slamming it as “a tragedy of a leadership running away from the truth.”
Hamas consulting other Palestinian factions
Meanwhile, Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish officials met with Hamas negotiators Tuesday night to discuss a response to a proposal by the Trump administration to end the war in Gaza, an official familiar with the talks said.
Hamas told mediators that its “carefully reviewing” the proposal and will prepare a final response once it completes consultations with other Palestinian factions, the official said.
In the enclave, the Red Cross suspended operations in Gaza City on Wednesday as Israel threatened it will cut off northern Gaza and split the besieged territory in two.
In a statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the largest city in Gaza and what was the most populated before hundreds of thousands fled faces a worsening humanitarian crisis as “civilians are being killed, forcibly displaced and made to endure dire conditions.”
ICRC said the suspension was temporary and that its teams had stayed as long as they could “to protect and support the most vulnerable people.”
At least 51 Palestinians have been killed throughout Gaza in the last 24 hours, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health and hospital data on Wednesday, most in northern Gaza.
On Wednesday, Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said this was the “last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south and leave Hamas operatives isolated in Gaza City itself in the face of IDF activity that continues at full force.”
“Those who remain in Gaza will be terrorists and supporters of terror,” he added.
Trump told reporters Tuesday that he is giving Hamas “three to four days” to respond to the Gaza peace plan.
“We’re going to do about three or four days. We’ll see how it is. All of the Arab countries are signed up. The Muslim countries are all signed up. Israel is all signed up,” the president said as he left the White House.
The-CNN-Wire
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CNN’s Mostafa Salem, Ibrahim Dahman, Abeer Salman, Eyad Kourdi and Mohammad Al Sawalhi contributed to this report.
