00:00now israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has rejected president donald trump's board of
00:06peace 15-point plan for gaza benjamin netanyahu said that the israeli army would not withdraw from
00:12gaza until hamas fully disarms last month donald trump had announced the plans for hamas to disarm
00:19if israel pulled out of gaza in just the past few moments hamas has told the afp news agency
00:26that the u.s must pressure benjamin netanyahu to accept the gaza deal despite a ceasefire being
00:33agreed last october israel's continued to carry out strikes on gaza with the health ministry saying
00:38that more than 1200 people have been killed well let's cross over to jerusalem my colleague john
00:45donison joins us now and john a blow for donald trump's peace plan just talk us through what
00:51benjamin netanyahu has been saying it is a blow i don't think it comes as a massive surprise this
00:59statement from prime minister netanyahu but he did take some time to make it perhaps reflecting the
01:06difficult position he is in because he clearly does not like this plan that president trump has come up
01:11with but he doesn't want to upset israel's greatest ally but he was pretty clear today he said that
01:20israeli forces would not withdrawal at all until there was full hamas disarmament he said that
01:27couldn't be some fictitious disarmament as he put it it had to be real and this comes really just over
01:34a week since president trump announced with great fanfare that hamas for the first time had agreed to
01:40disarm in exchange for israeli withdrawal something that he called a monumental step well
01:47already we've had a step backwards so what does this mean for gaza then what happens next
01:55well i don't think much is going to change for gaza at the moment i mean prime minister netanyahu said
02:00he
02:00was now going to be in discussion with american officials about how to move forward and i think
02:06the reality is that if there is going to be disarmament and withdrawal then it's going to have to be
02:11phased
02:12you know there would have to be some weapons handed over and then israel pulled out of some areas there
02:17would have to be then more weapons until eventually got to all arms being handed over and maybe uh israel
02:23fully withdrawing but even that you know prime minister netanyahu is in a tough spot he is under
02:28enormous pressure from the right wing of his party we've got elections coming up in just a few months
02:34time and it is unimaginable really certainly before those elections to think of israeli withdrawal with
02:40forces uh withdrawing so i think to be honest we are back to a status quo so what does this
02:48mean for
02:48the elections as you say which are coming up in just the next few months
02:55well look at the moment prime minister netanyahu is behind in the polls uh if there was an election
03:00tomorrow his coalition would probably uh lose so there's a lot at stake for him and you know there
03:07is not an appetite amongst the israeli public to take a tough stance a soft stance on hamas in gaza
03:15there is no appetite to make concessions there is an appetite to continue the operations in lebanon
03:21where israeli forces continue to occupy a large chunk of land and there's quite a lot of appetite
03:26for israel to resume the war with iran so certainly before those elections i can't see
03:33uh prime minister netanyahu becoming dovish if anything he's likely to become more hawkish and i
03:40think there is an argument that it might play well with the israeli public if he can say look i
03:45am the
03:46only israeli leader who's prepared to stand up to our greatest friend america when it's in israel's
03:54interest okay john as always many thanks for that update john donelson they're joining us from jerusalem
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