Netanyahu says no Israeli withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas has been completely disarmed

The ceasefire halted much of the fighting, but at least 1,252 people have been killed in Gaza since it took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. Palestinians carry the flag-draped bodies of members of the Hassayna and Abu Sharia families, who were killed in an Israeli strike in 2023 and whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble, during their funeral in Gaza City, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi) DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza City (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israeli forces will not withdraw from their current lines in Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed. In remarks on social media, Netanyahu suggested there were differences between Israel and the Trump administration over a recent deal announced to disarm the militant group. The agreement called for Hamas to begin disarming and for Israel to halt its strikes and begin withdrawing from Gaza. It was part of an October ceasefire agreement that ended major military operations but has stalled on other fronts. Netanyahu instead said disarmament should come first, and that Israeli forces would continue to “do whatever is necessary to protect themselves, our territory, and our citizens.” The Trump administration “sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments,” Netanyahu said. “This is our position. We stand firm on our interests, I believe both wisely and resolutely.” Earlier on Tuesday, Palestinians gathered for a mass funeral of more than 100 bodies finally recovered from a deadly Israeli strike in Gaza in 2023. More than 300 people were killed on Nov. 22, 2023, weeks into the war with Hamas, when warplanes flattened a residential block in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood. Around 40 bodies were recovered soon afterward in a frantic scramble of rough tools and bare hands, but most were buried deep beneath the rubble. Reports of the high number of victims in one of the war’s deadliest attacks took days to reach the public in the chaos just before its first ceasefire. Over the weekend, first responders dug through the destroyed buildings and recovered remains of 112 victims, including 40 children, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operating under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. It said 157 bodies still have not been found. “The only crime of these martyrs was that they remained steadfast and resilient in their homes, believing that these homes would protect them,” one relative, Taysir al-Hassayna, told The Associated Press following the funeral prayers. For the missing, it’s “as if their bodies had evaporated without a trace.” Only now are some bodies of people killed in the war’s ferocious early months slowly being recovered, as a fragile ceasefire that took effect in October allows such efforts to push ahead in parts of devastated Gaza. Those discoveries have contributed to the war’s rising toll. The Hamas-led militant attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 73,377 Palestinians, including since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. At least 7,400 people have been reported by relatives to still be under the rubble, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the ministry’s records department, told the AP. The true number is likely thousands higher because in some cases entire families were killed in a single bombing, leaving no one to report the missing, al-Waheidi has said. The people mourned on Tuesday were from a residential block belonging to the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan, and many were related. The Associated Press has identified at least 60 families across Gaza who lost 25 or more family members during the first three months of war. On Tuesday, the remains of the victims, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were laid in rows on the ground. Many were marked with photos, and flower petals were scattered around all. Hundreds of people surro