Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel did not accept a U.S.-backed plan for the Gaza Strip, even after receiving assurances that an Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territory would take place only after the complete disarmament of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, AFP reported on Wednesday.

In a video posted overnight on social media, Netanyahu stated that U.S. President Donald Trump’s team “believed it could achieve the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip. We are analyzing this possibility. They sent us a draft, which we did not accept: it is not our plan. We conveyed our position to them.”

On Monday, Netanyahu met with members of President Trump’s Peace Council, tasked with implementing the second phase of the peace plan for Gaza, and received assurances that the Israeli military would not be forced to withdraw from its current positions in the Gaza Strip—where it occupies over 60% of the territory—until the Palestinian Islamist movement is completely disarmed.

Hamas announced on Friday that it had accepted an agreement presented by Donald Trump which, according to the version published at the time by the Peace Council, called for a cessation of military operations by both sides in the Gaza Strip and the disarmament of the Palestinian Islamist movement, along with a gradual Israeli withdrawal.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, who is running for a new term in the October elections, is under pressure from his far-right allies in the governing coalition, who have denounced the Gaza agreement and are demanding a government vote to reject it.

AGERPRES