US President Donald Trump's advisers have rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements regarding the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan, Axios reported.
A senior US official told Axios, "This is our show, not his show," referring to Netanyahu. The official added, "We managed to do things in Gaza in recent months nobody thought was possible, and we are going to continue moving."
The official said stressed, "If he wants us to deal with Gaza, it will have to be our way. We worked over him. Let him focus on Iran and let us deal with Gaza. We are not going to argue with him. He will do his politics and we will keep moving forward with our plan. He can't really go against us."
The official also said that the alternative to accepting the US dictations is sending IDF troops back into fighting in Gaza, and the US stepping out.
In his opinion, the US is "doing him a favor."
"If this fails he can say, 'I told you so.' We know that if it succeeds he will claim credit," the official added to Axios. "Nobody in Israel believed we will get this far - but we managed to do it."
On Thursday night, Trump announced that the “Board of Peace for Gaza" has been created, adding that the names of the members would be made public at a later date.
"It is my Great Honor to announce that THE BOARD OF PEACE has been formed. The Members of the Board will be announced shortly, but I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
The “Board of Peace" is part of Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which led to the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization this past October.
The plan stipulates that the “Board of Peace" serves as an international transitional oversight body that supervises and provides oversight for Gaza's transitional administration during a post-ceasefire reconstruction period.
As part of the plan, day-to-day administration is handled by a technocratic Palestinian Arab committee overseen by an intermediate executive committee. The “Board of Peace" is chaired by President Trump himself and is expected to include around 10-15 leaders from Arab, Western, and other countries.
A senior representative on the ground in Gaza is former UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov.
Significant players on the board include both Turkey and Qatar, both of which support Hamas and are hostile to Israel.
On Saturday night, the Prime Minister’s Office said, "The announcement regarding the composition of the Gaza Executive Board, which is subordinate to the Board of Peace, was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy."
"The Prime Minister has instructed the Foreign Affairs Minister to contact the US Secretary of State on this matter."
Trump’s announcement followed Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff's statement that the US would now move to implement the second phase of the Trump administration's Gaza peace plan, despite the fact that the body of Ran Gvili, the last hostage, continues to be held in Gaza.
As part of the conditions of the ceasefire, Hamas was to have returned all the hostages it was holding in Phase One, but it continues to hold Gvili’s body, while claiming that it does not know where the body is.
Israel has provided critical information on the burial place of Gvili, but Hamas has ignored it.
The Israeli government has maintained its opposition to the implementation of the second phase before Hamas fulfills all of its obligations from the first stage, including the return of Gvili.