Netanyahu Rejects 15-Point Plan, Hamas Stays Committed

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used his Sunday, August 9, cabinet meeting to say something that matters to Belgrade more than it might appear at first glance: the 15-point plan had been the only document that brought the United States, Israel and part of the Arab world into any kind of alignment, and rejecting it drags the region back into a state where risk gets priced through the cost of a barrel of oil and through how seriously partners take the guarantees Washington offers. Serbia has no troops and no seat at that table, but it does have an import basket that reacts to every shock coming out of the Middle East.

Netanyahu spoke briefly and without hedging.

Israel rejects the 15-point document published by the Board of Peace.

He immediately spelled out what that means for troops on the ground.

The Israeli military will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, and it will continue to suppress threats to our forces and our citizens.

The prime minister made any withdrawal conditional on real disarmament, not what he called imagined disarmament, which in Israel’s reading covers light weapons too, not just artillery and rockets. At the same meeting he added a line that has nothing to do with the ceasefire and everything to do with what comes after it.

As long as I am prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state.

What the 15-point plan proposes

The document was drafted by the Board of Peace, a body set up by Donald Trump that brings together around 40 countries, including Israel and several Arab states, but not a single Palestinian representative. Trump announced the deal on July 30 as the full disarmament of Hamas and every other armed group in Gaza.

The plan’s first phase does not touch everything at once. It covers:

• Hamas’s heavy weapons
• weapons production facilities
• ammunition depots
• the tunnel network under the Strip

Only after that would day to day administration of Gaza pass to a technocratic Palestinian committee, overseen by the same Board of Peace. The board’s chief envoy, Nikolai Mladenov, said Israel would withdraw from Gaza once disarmament is verified, which turns verification, not just a promise, into the point where the whole arrangement could fall apart.

On the American side, Netanyahu said talks are ongoing.

They have ideas, some acceptable, some not acceptable.

Why the rift is now between Washington and Jerusalem

Hamas confirmed the same day, in a statement on Telegram, that it remains committed to fully implementing the plan, and called on mediators and guarantor countries to take responsibility and prevent violations that could derail the process.

The priority at this stage must be to secure the implementation of all phases and obligations of the agreement.

That has produced a situation diplomatic channels in Brussels and Washington had not planned for: the dividing line no longer runs between Israel and Hamas, but between Israel and its own most important ally. The Board of Peace was established in February 2026 with Trump at its head, but its power to enforce anything without Israeli consent is limited, since it has neither forces on the ground nor any mechanism to compel Jerusalem.

The timeline shows how fragile that arrangement is. The ceasefire took effect in mid-October 2025. Since then, 1,258 people have been killed in Gaza and 4,139 wounded, with more than 800 bodies pulled from the rubble, according to the territory’s health ministry. The total killed since October 2023 stands at 73,386, with 174,250 wounded. Attacks continue almost daily; on Sunday a child was wounded by Israeli military fire in the Al Najjar neighborhood of Khan Younis.

There is also an internal calendar rarely mentioned in official statements. Israel goes to general elections in less than three months, and Netanyahu’s party is counting on votes from West Bank settlers in the campaign. The line about a Palestinian state, spoken at a cabinet meeting, was addressed both to Washington and to the voter rolls.

For Serbia, the measurable consequence shows up in energy prices. Brent crude for October delivery rose 1.09 percent on Sunday, to $84.46 a barrel, and American WTI for September rose 0.84 percent, to $78.84, with the immediate trigger being Iran’s conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz rather than Gaza. The two flashpoints, however, trade together, and every collapsed framework in either one stays priced in even for a country two and a half thousand kilometers away.

The Board of Peace has not announced its next date.