Israel rejects Trump Gaza plan, will not withdraw until Hamas disarms

Israel has rejected a peace plan for Gaza put forward by Donald Trump, with Prime Minister Netanyahu stating that Israeli forces won't withdraw until Hamas is disarmed. The BBC and Independent both carry the story.

The Independent reports that Trump's proposal is a detailed plan running to multiple points. Netanyahu's rejection centres on the sequencing: Israel's position is that disarmament must precede withdrawal, not follow it. The plan's detail suggests American diplomatic effort, but the Israeli response suggests that effort hasn't shifted the fundamental question of who moves first.

The pattern is older than this conflict. Every Middle East peace framework since Camp David in the seventies has foundered on the same sequencing problem: neither side will make the conciliating move without a guarantee the other side will follow, and neither side trusts the guarantee. The result is that both sides wait, and the waiting becomes the policy.

Trump's involvement is the variable. His first term saw the Abraham Accords - normalisation between Israel and several Arab states without resolving the Palestinian question first, breaking the older assumption that Palestinian statehood was the prerequisite for regional peace. Whether that approach scales to Gaza, where Hamas remains armed and Egypt holds the border, is the test.

What to watch: whether Trump continues to press the plan or moves on, and whether any Arab state with leverage - Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE - signals support for the sequencing Israel has rejected. If none do, the plan dies quietly.