On July 31, 2026, US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace published a 15-point plan meant to halt Israel's assault on Gaza and end the killing. It called for a phased process in which Israel would withdraw its forces as Hamas disarmed, with day-to-day administration of Gaza handed to a technocratic Palestinian committee. Trump called it a monumental step toward lasting peace and security.

On August 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected it. He stated plainly that Israel rejects the 15-point document and that Israeli forces would not withdraw from Gaza. In the same remarks, he restated his position on Palestinian statehood.

As long as I am prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state.

So Netanyahu has now killed a plan written by his closest ally, rather than accept any path that ends the occupation of Gaza or leads to a Palestinian state.

The timing matters. Netanyahu faces an Israeli election on October 27, and polls show his coalition at risk of losing its majority. Palestinian and Israeli analysts have said the same thing about his approach: stall and evade until after the vote, because actually ending the genocide would break his far-right coalition apart.

Throughout the ceasefire declared in October 2025, Israel has never stopped killing. UN experts on August 10 condemned a sharp escalation of attacks across the occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli forces have killed at least 1,258 Palestinians and wounded 4,139 since the ceasefire began, and recovered 807 more bodies from the rubble. Israel still controls roughly 70 percent of Gaza.

The full toll is hard to take in. Since October 2023, when Israel began its assault on Gaza, at least 73,386 Palestinians have been killed and 174,250 wounded, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. More than 8,000 people are still missing under the rubble. A UN satellite assessment found that 82 percent of all structures in Gaza, more than 201,000 buildings, have been damaged or destroyed.

This was never a war between two armies. It is one of the most heavily armed militaries on earth, backed by the United States, against a besieged and largely defenseless population. A plan to stop it was put on the table by Israel's own patron. Israel rejected it, refused to withdraw, ruled out a Palestinian state, and kept bombing a starving people. The obstacle to peace has a name.