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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has not agreed to a U.S.-backed plan for Gaza, even after receiving assurances that an Israeli pullout would only happen after Hamas disarms.
In a video posted to his social media accounts Tuesday night, Netanyahu said U.S. President Donald Trump's team "believes that they can bring about the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of Gaza."
"We are checking this. They sent us a draft, we did not agree to it, it is not our draft. We sent our comments," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu met with the U.S.-backed Board of Peace on Monday and received guarantees that the Israeli army would only be required to leave its current positions in Gaza after Hamas disarms.
Pressure has been growing on Netanyahu from the right flank of his ruling coalition to reject the deal.
Two far-right ministers requested a new vote on the plan Tuesday, saying it does not reflect what had originally been discussed.
Israel's security Cabinet, in which the two ministers sit, had already voted in favor of the proposal, which would include the deployment of international peacekeeping troops in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu moved to convene his security Cabinet on Tuesday, but the meeting was postponed to Thursday, Israeli media reported.
The postponement came amid primary voting in Netanyahu's Likud Party ahead of Oct. 27 elections, in which he faces a tight race.
The request by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlement Minister Orit Strook to hold a new vote should be viewed as "a campaign move" aimed at pressuring Netanyahu, said Tal Elovits, a researcher at Israeli think tank Molad.
"The Israeli right-wing has always tried to postpone a scenario in which this conflict becomes an international conflict. Obviously, the IDF's behavior will be different once you have soldiers from Kosovo, from Indonesia" and other countries, Elovits said, referring to the Israeli military.
Elovits said Israel has no concrete possibility of tearing up the U.S.-sponsored plan because of its international isolation.
"Netanyahu has no other option besides listening to his only friend left in the diplomatic community," he said, referring to Trump.
"Netanyahu is not a very active player here, he's an active player maybe in trying to block some ideas, but Israel is not putting anything on the table," he added.
U.S. pressure on Israel to curb attacks in Gaza ahead of a partial withdrawal under the plan appears to be yielding results.
According to reports in Haaretz and other Israeli media, troops have been instructed to seek authorization from the chief of staff for strikes unless they are in "immediate danger."
That would mark a change from previous directives, under which attacks only required approval from the head of the regional command.
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