Back from DC, Netanyahu says Trump’s Gaza plan ‘much better’ for Israel than alternatives
Chairing cabinet meeting, PM says Israel expects ‘Hamas to fulfill all its obligations’ in current truce; Shin Bet chief said barred from discussion on state commission of inquiry
Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel
Speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting on Sunday following his return from Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he expected Hamas to meet all of its obligations under the current ceasefire deal, and that his meetings with Trump administration officials will provide Israel with opportunities “we never dreamed of.”
“I’m returning now from a historic visit to Washington, with President Donald Trump, with officials in his administration and with the heads of the Senate and Congress,” said Netanyahu, just a few hours after he landed back in Israel following his weeklong trip to the US. “This trip, and the conversations we held with the president of the United States, included additional incredible achievements that can guarantee the security of Israel for generations.”
Netanyahu said that he was “not exaggerating. I’m not overstating. There are opportunities here for possibilities that I don’t think we ever dreamed of — or at least until the last few months, they didn’t seem possible, but they are possible.”
Hosting Netanyahu at the White House last week, Trump suggested that the US “take over” Gaza, that all its residents be relocated elsewhere into new housing developments, and that the Strip be razed to the ground and turned into a “riviera of the Middle East.”
Speaking on Sunday, Netanyahu said that Trump “presented his vision for the ‘day after'” the war in Gaza. “For a full year we’ve been told that on the ‘day after’ we need the PLO in the Strip, we need the PA [Palestinian Authority]. Trump came with a totally different vision, a much better one for the State of Israel.”
Trump’s proposal, said the prime minister, is “revolutionary, creative — and we’re discussing it. He is very determined to carry it out. It opens up many opportunities for us.”
Netanyahu did not mention any of the details in the plan Trump laid out, which has been resoundingly rejected by Arab nations including Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who have long denounced any efforts to displace Palestinians, including temporarily. Trump has suggested that the entire population of Gaza would voluntarily relocate if given the chance, something most analysts say is not possible.
The prime minister said Sunday that at the same time, “we are enforcing the ceasefire agreements” in both the north and south.
“This requires us to act, sometimes to open fire in order to enforce them,” Netanyahu said of the terms of the separate deals with Hamas and with Lebanon. “We are doing this in both the north and the south. My instruction tonight — nobody approaches the perimeter and nobody returns to the perimeter.” Netanyahu said that this is “part of the agreement. We will enforce it, and we will enforce it firmly. We expect Hamas to fulfill all its obligations — and this is one of them.”
Earlier Sunday, IDF troops opened fire at a group of Gazans who approached the border in the northern Gaza Strip, near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Hamas authorities said three people were killed and others wounded.
Israel has expressed anger at actions by Hamas that it said have violated the ceasefire deal, including delays in handing over the names of hostages to be freed; its initial failure to release female civilian Arbel Yehoud in the first two releases; and the chaos and danger during the release of some hostages as a seething crowd closed in around them.
Netanyahu did not make any public comments ahead of the cabinet meeting on the condition of the freed hostages Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben-Ami, who were released a day earlier in a state of severe malnutrition.
On Saturday, Israel expressed horror at the gaunt, pale hostages released that day, and Netanyahu said then that he would “take action accordingly,” without elaborating.
With his return to Israel, Netanyahu is expected to hold discussions on negotiations over the second stage of the current ceasefire deal, which were slated to begin last week under the terms of the agreement, as well as talks on the bombshell Trump proposal put forth last week about the future of Gaza.
On Saturday, Netanyahu approved the dispatch of a delegation to Doha to address technical details of the ongoing deal, although the officials sent to Qatar are reportedly not expected to advance negotiations on the second phase, an ostensible violation of the deal.
According to Hebrew media reports, the delegation did not receive a mandate from the political echelon to conduct talks on the second phase, and won’t do so until after the security cabinet meeting slated for Tuesday.
In a lengthy post on X on Sunday evening, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterated his opposition to advancing toward a second stage of the ceasefire deal, calling it a “slippery and dangerous slope.”
Continuing negotiations with Hamas, he claimed, would embolden the terror group to “abduct more Israelis, and demand an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, the evacuation of the settlements and the establishment of a Palestinian state in exchange for their release.”
He proclaimed that the “reckless media in Israel will brainwash you, without you even realizing, just as it has been doing for over a year” into calling for a second phase of the deal to release the 59 hostages still held in Gaza who are not included in the first stage.
Smotrich declared that his party will oppose any and all attempts to proceed to the second stage of the agreement, and warned Netanyahu that anyone who would agree to the demands of Hamas “does not deserve to be a leader.” After Itamar Ben Gvir already pulled his Otzma Yehudit party out of the government in protest of the deal, the exit of Religious Zionism would deprive the coalition of its Knesset majority, although the main opposition parties have said they will support it to see through the current hostage-ceasefire deal to its conclusion.
The cabinet meeting on Sunday was also discussing the establishment of a state inquiry into the failures surrounding the Hamas October 7 massacre. Following a petition to the High Court demanding a state commission of inquiry be established, the justices gave the government 60 days to hold a hearing on the issue.
According to a report in the Ynet news site, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar requested to take part in that discussion, but was refused. Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara reportedly asked why Bar’s positions were not provided to the cabinet ministers.
In response, Netanyahu reportedly banged on the table and said: “This is absurd! What authority does he have to express his opinion without being asked, and without it even being relevant to him at all?”
Netanyahu has long expressed opposition to the establishment of a state commission of inquiry, arguing that all investigations must wait until the fighting in Gaza ends and suggesting that a body established through the High Court would be a political witch hunt against him and his administration.
Lazar Berman and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
