HARDLINE RHETORIC
Netanyahu, who is facing elections in October that polls show will be tight, has increasingly been willing to defy Trump, whose support he once highlighted in his campaign.
The Israeli Prime Minister has also made clear his unhappiness with Trump’s decision to halt the US-Israeli war on Iran launched in late February and instead to pursue a settlement with Tehran’s clerical state.
After initially voicing muted criticism of the Gaza plan, Netanyahu last week told his Cabinet that he rejected it and vowed not to pull troops from the Palestinian territory.
The stance came even though Mladenov assured Netanyahu that Israel would not need to withdraw until a full disarmament by Hamas, backtracking on the Board of Peace’s earlier calls for Israel to start a phased withdrawal.
In an interview, Itamar Ben Gvir, a far-right national security minister in Netanyahu’s Cabinet, called for mass killings in Gaza.
“I think targeted eliminations should be carried out in Gaza every night. Take out 30 or 40,” Ben Gvir said in a podcast with a former Gaza hostage.
“Not only those who endanger you right now. These are people who shouldn’t be alive,” he said. “I’m paying them a compliment by calling them humans.”
On Sunday, eight Muslim-majority countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – whose relationship with Israel is considered by Netanyahu to be a key achievement – in a joint statement condemned Israel’s rejection of the Gaza plan.
Israel has resumed airstrikes in Gaza after a lull following Trump’s promotion of the peace plan, although the October ceasefire had never fully halted the violence in the Strip.
Israeli operations have killed at least 1,262 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect on Oct 10, according to figures by Gaza’s health ministry, which is under Hamas. Its figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.
The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during Gaza operations over the same period.
