Israel said to tell US it will keep targeting Oct. 7 terrorists as Gaza disarmament stalls
Times of Israel · LC · trust 53/100
Israel informed the White House recently that it would be willing to negotiate an agreement halting the targeted killings of Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, but that any such deal would exclude those who took part in the October 7, 2023, attack, Channel 13 news reported on Monday.
The report that Israel had insisted on continuing to target terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre came a day after The Times of Israel reported that the IDF had halted a special operation to hunt down and kill every terrorist involved in the attack.
Jerusalem allegedly conveyed its position to Washington against the backdrop of discussions on the US-backed Board of Peace’s roadmap for the disarmament of the Gaza Strip, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally rejected on Sunday, when he said Israeli troops would not withdraw from the enclave until Hamas is “genuinely disarmed.”
Despite Netanyahu’s public rejection, a Board of Peace official told Reuters on Monday that the disarmament plan was still on the table and that discussions with Israel were continuing.
“The plan is very much still operative and advancing,” the official told Reuters.
“The process is based on implementation and verification on the ground. Discussions with Israel are continuing, and the framework is designed so that each stage only moves forward once the required commitments have been met,” the official said.
US President Donald Trump announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his peace plan for the Gaza Strip, in the form of a 15-point proposal for the IDF to withdraw and Hamas to hand over its weapons.
Various reports regarding the terms of the proposal have suggested that it would require Hamas to gradually hand over its weapons to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the Board of Peace-overseen panel of Palestinian technocrats that is tasked with replacing the terror group in governing the Strip.
At the same time, the IDF would be required to immediately return to the original Yellow Line that roughly divides Gaza into eastern and western halves, reversing the advances made by Israel in recent months, after Netanyahu instructed the military to seize over 70 percent of the Strip.
Israel would reportedly be barred from conducting strikes that aren’t against targets deemed as imminent threats.
Netanyahu, in comments rejecting the plan at the start of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, said the IDF would not carry out any withdrawal of troops “until Hamas is disarmed.”
“And when I say Hamas must be disarmed, I mean the heavy weapons, the less-heavy weapons, all weapons. And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not a fictitious one,” he clarified.
He confirmed that Israel was discussing its reservations about the roadmap with the US, saying some of Washington’s ideas “are acceptable to us and some are unacceptable to us, and we know how to stand up to these things.”
Trump was asked by a reporter in the Oval Office on Monday whether he had any response to Netanyahu’s rejection of the plan.
“I have a response. I put it out today on Truth — a good response,” the US president said, referring to his Truth Social platform.
However, no such statement had been posted on Truth Social as of early Tuesday morning.
It was unclear whether Trump was suggesting that the statement would come out later, or if he misheard the question.
Regardless, Trump insisted, as he often does, that his relationship with Netanyahu is “very good.”
Despite Netanyahu’s claim that Israel has rejected the terms of the Board of Peace’s proposal, IDF soldiers in the Gaza Strip told Channel 12 on Monday that the rules of engagement have changed dramatically since the disarmament roadmap was publicized, suggesting that there are quiet agreements with the board to drastically rein in operations.
The soldiers’ accounts were consistent with comments from Israeli security sources last week, who said that the IDF had tightened its policy for “targeted elimination” strikes — as opposed to strikes against immediate threats — in the Gaza Strip.
Such strikes now require prior approval from IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, while they had previously required only the approval of IDF Southern Command chief Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor or various division commanders operating in the Strip.
“In the past week, something meaningful changed in the concept,” said a soldier. “They are trying as much as possible to avoid friction in general on the Yellow Line.”
Soldiers continue to refer to the current IDF line of control as the Yellow Line, though it has moved further into formerly Hamas-controlled territory than the original Yellow Line.
“They don’t want us to kill anyone,” the soldier added.
“Until a week ago, there were different rules of engagement,” another unnamed soldier told the outlet, adding that the chief of staff now needed to approve any strikes targeting “someone who represents a threat but hasn’t crossed Israeli-held lines.”
“We are hoping the statistics happen to someone else,” he said — apparently arguing that the new rules will cause soldiers to be killed — expressing frustration that IDF units are largely static in Gaza and are not on the offensive.
Following the Channel 12 report, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office denied that the rules of engagement have changed.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
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