Israel Tells White House It Will Keep Targeting October 7 Perpetrators Despite Gaza Disarmament Push

Israel informed the White House it would be willing to negotiate a broader halt to targeted-killing strikes in Gaza as part of the US-backed Board of Peace disarmament roadmap, but insisted any such deal must exclude anyone who took part in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israeli officials said August 11, 2026. The position came a day after reports that the IDF-Shin Bet 'Nili' manhunt for October 7 participants had been paused amid the roadmap talks. Israeli security sources also said the military had tightened its approval process for targeted-elimination strikes in Gaza, now requiring sign-off from IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir rather than lower-ranking commanders — a bureaucratic change soldiers said significantly slowed operations. Netanyahu had publicly rejected the 15-point Board of Peace roadmap days earlier, saying Israeli forces would remain in Gaza until Hamas is 'genuinely disarmed,' even as a Board of Peace official told Reuters talks were 'still operative and advancing.'