A Palestinian child carries a little girl on his back as he walks past the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the northern Gaza Strip. AFP
The calls came during a meeting of Israel's Security Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Thursday evening to discuss the roadmap for the plan's second phase, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper.
According to the newspaper, the call was made by “mini cabinet” minister Ze'ev Elkin, finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, settlements minister Orit Strock, and agriculture minister Avi Dichter.
Since the ceasefire agreement took effect in October, Israel has continued to violate the deal through daily attacks on Gaza, killing at least 1,252 Palestinians and injuring 4,120 others, most of them women and children.
Last Friday, the Trump-chaired Board of Peace announced that Hamas had approved the roadmap that would allow a move to the second phase of the plan, while Israel was still stalling.
In late July, Hamas stated its agreement to the next stage of the deal, including handing over weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing committee. Hamas stressed that handing over weapons was contingent on the end of Israeli attacks on Gaza, the deployment of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), and the withdrawal of the occupation army from the strip, as stipulated by the deal’s first phase.
Last Friday, the Board of Peace released a draft agreement outlining the principles and implementation mechanisms for the next phase of Trump's Gaza plan. The document included security, administrative and transitional arrangements for the enclave, as well as a proposed political track.
"If Israel does not launch offensive operations for two weeks, it would mean that it has accepted the plan," Elkin said, calling for a formal rejection of the roadmap's provisions.
Smotrich, Strock, and Dichter demanded that Netanyahu issue an official statement confirming Israel's opposition to implementing the plan's second phase, according to the report.
"You are good at manoeuvring, but after the issuance of an official document, we must delegitimize it. We cannot continue manoeuvring," Smotrich told Netanyahu.
"Hamas must not remain. It must be erased," he added.
The Israeli army currently occupies 70 percent of the Gaza Strip following a genocidal war that killed at least 73,300 Palestinians and injured over 174,000 since October 2023, most of them women and children.
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