In July 2026, US President Donald Trump announced a peace plan for Gaza requiring Hamas to gradually disarm in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territory. While Hamas agreed to the plan's call for disarmament, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected it more than a week later, significantly undermining prospects for peace in Gaza.

Netanyahu’s rejection was anticipated by observers, as far-right Israeli politicians have deemed any withdrawal from Gaza “unacceptable.” Currently, the Israeli military controls nearly 70% of Gaza’s 365-square-kilometre territory.

The US plan proposed that disarmament and the storage of Hamas’s weapons be managed by the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a Palestinian technocratic body established in January 2026 to oversee the enclave during a transitional phase.

Bertrand Badie, professor emeritus at Sciences Po in Paris, noted that the collapse of the deal was unsurprising to many commentators, attributing it to Trump’s tendency toward “short-term wins, headline-grabbing moves and grandstanding.”

The plan also aimed to support the two-state solution initiated at the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit, which produced a Gaza ceasefire plan on October 13, 2025.

Ghaith al-Omari, a former Palestinian Authority official and senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Hamas sought to be seen as a "reasonable actor," and Netanyahu’s refusal ultimately benefited the group.

Denis Charbit, a political science professor at the Open University of Israel, emphasized Israel’s firm stance: “The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. And when I say the disarming of Hamas, it means heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry. And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament.”

Meanwhile, during talks earlier in August 2026, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and Nikolaï Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza and director-general of Trump's Board of Peace, urged all parties to honor their commitments and avoid actions that could jeopardize the peace process.

The rejection of the peace plan leaves the Palestinian movement in a position to make further demands in the future, complicating the path toward resolution.

Sources