Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing mounting pressure over Washington’s 15-point roadmap for Gaza, with disagreements over how, and whether, the plan should move towards implementation becoming increasingly public.

 

According to Israeli media reports on August 11, Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a member of the Gaza Executive Board, pushed back against Netanyahu’s handling of the roadmap. Citing sources familiar with the discussions, an Israeli television channel reported that Kushner and Netanyahu had held several tense conversations in recent days.

 

Kushner reportedly challenged Netanyahu’s opposition to key steps under the roadmap, arguing that the initiative had been shaped around the Israeli prime minister’s own desire for an alternative to both continued Israeli control of Gaza and Hamas rule.

 

“You’re throwing a wrench into the idea that you wanted,” Kushner reportedly told Netanyahu, accusing him of obstructing an initiative that was moving toward implementation.

 

Netanyahu, however, rejected the criticism. He insisted that any new governing arrangement in Gaza should come only after Hamas is disarmed and the enclave is fully demilitarized. He has also opposed provisions that would place Gaza under Palestinian law, arguing that such an arrangement would amount to establishing a Palestinian state.

 

Netanyahu reiterated his rejection of Trump’s latest Gaza proposal in a social media post, while Israeli officials reportedly conveyed their reservations to Washington.

 

His position has received strong backing from Israel’s far-right political camp. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich praised Netanyahu, saying: “We went to war with a central goal: the destruction of Hamas.” He added that the Israeli military “cannot withdraw even a millimeter from the Gaza Strip.”

 

Hamas, for its part, has reaffirmed its commitment to the roadmap while demanding guarantees concerning the ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal, humanitarian aid and reconstruction.

 

There have nevertheless been signs of a limited de-escalation on the ground. Israel scaled back its attacks in Gaza after August 10, when Nikolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy for Trump’s Board of Peace, met with Netanyahu.

 

Israel has scaled back attacks in Gaza since August 10, when Nikolay Mladenov, the Gaza envoy for Trump's Board of Peace that oversees the ceasefire, met with Netanyahu.

 

Mladenov said in an interview on another Israeli TV that any Israeli pullback would come incrementally from areas declared free of weapons, with international forces taking over ground Israel vacates, and that disarmament would ultimately extend to all armed groups in Gaza, not Hamas alone.

 

A source familiar with Israel's position said that it had agreed that the military would only act against what it perceives as immediate threats in Gaza and no longer carry out targeted assassinations as it had been doing on a near-daily basis.

 

Israel’s rejection of the plan was nonetheless accompanied by discernible changes on the ground.

 

The reported number of Palestinians killed in Gaza dropped sharply, from 47 between 27 July and 3 August, which includes the days immediately after Trump’s initial disarmament agreement announcement, to eight in the following week through August 10, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

 

Israeli army radio reported that Netanyahu and defense minister Israel Katz had secretly approved rehabilitation work to rebuild basic infrastructure in eastern Rafah, with Palestinian laborers to be allowed onto the site after screening by Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency.

 

The project, however, underpins the “Green Rafah’’ temporary-housing initiative. Experts fear that far from being genuine humanitarian relief, the construction will further entrench Israel’s military within Gaza and cement its fragmentation. Israel has reportedly held back caravans needed to house residents there until after its October election, despite the October 2025 “ceasefire” agreement.

 

Yet media outlets, citing US officials, reported that the Israeli army has received no order to freeze preparations for the agreement’s second phase, with a first base for the incoming International Stabilisation Force reportedly planned to begin construction in Rafah by the end of August.

 

Netanyahu is facing competing pressure from his US allies to proceed towards the second phase, and from his far-right political allies to seize and even colonize more of Gaza as elections near.

 

Netanyahu is struggling in the polls as he seeks re-election at a vote due on October 27 but is caught between far-right ministers angered by concessions in Gaza and his key military backer, Trump, who wants progress towards ending the conflict there with a new 15-point roadmap.

 

Despite the de-escalation in attacks, violence continued in the besieged Gaza and Israeli forces shoot and kill every now and then in most areas of the Strip.

 

Since October’s “ceasefire”, at least 1,258 Palestinians have been killed and 4,139 wounded, while 807 bodies were recovered from rubble as of August 10.

 

Since October 2023, when Israel began its genocidal war on Gaza, 73,386 Palestinians have been killed and 174,250 wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

 

Besides, more than 8,000 people remain missing under rubble across the Strip Gaza’s Health Ministry says.

 

A satellite assessment by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) found that 82 per cent of all structures in Gaza – more than 201,000 buildings – were still damaged or destroyed as of mid-June.

 

Israeli troops have occupied and depopulated two-thirds of the enclave, leaving nearly all its more than two million residents confined to a tiny strip of land under Hamas control along the coast, most in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.

 

US allies see Netanyahu’s rejection of Washington’s 15-point plan for Gaza as undermining confidence in the Board of Peace — and in the Trump administration’s ability to influence the Middle East more broadly.

 

President Trump is the only one to have the potential to influence this situation, as he could seek to reassert his political relevance by pressuring Netanyahu to reconsider his position.

 

Persistent uncertainty and stalled political negotiations have left millions of civilians trapped in chronic displacement, severe infrastructure collapse and acute psychological distress.

 

The day-to-day reality for residents remains defined by instability.