U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday fully endorsed Israel’s conflict goals within the Gaza Strip, saying Hamas “should be eradicated” and throwing the shaky ceasefire into further doubt as talks on its second phase are yet to start.
Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu firstly of a regional tour, where he’s prone to face pushback from Arab leaders over U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza and redevelop it under U.S. ownership.
Netanyahu has welcomed the plan, and said he and Trump have a “common strategy” for Gaza. Echoing Trump, he said “the gates of hell could be open” if Hamas doesn’t release dozens of remaining hostages abducted within the militant group’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the 16-month conflict.
The ceasefire’s first phase is ready to finish in two weeks and the second phase has yet to be negotiated, though talks were meant to start two weeks ago. Within the second phase, Hamas would release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, an enduring truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces
Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told Fox News that “phase two is completely going to start” and he had ”very productive” calls Sunday with Netanyahu and officials from Egypt and Qatar, which function mediators, about continuing talks this week. He also said hostages to be released include 19 Israeli soldiers and “we imagine all of them are alive.”
Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s security Cabinet would meet Monday to debate the second phase. Netanyahu also instructed negotiators to depart for Cairo on Monday to debate further implementation of the primary phase.
Rubio said Hamas can’t proceed as a military or government force.
“So long as it stands as a force that may govern or as a force that may administer or as a force that may threaten by use of violence, peace becomes unimaginable,” he said. “It should be eradicated.”
Hamas reasserted control over Gaza when the ceasefire took hold last month despite suffering heavy losses.
Rubio can be set to go to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, political heavyweights within the region.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it carried out an airstrike Sunday on individuals who approached its forces in southern Gaza. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the strike killed three of its cops while they secured the entry of aid trucks near Rafah on the Egyptian border.
Resuming the conflict could doom hostages
This week marks 500 days of the conflict. Netanyahu has signaled readiness to resume the fighting after the ceasefire’s current phase, though it may very well be a death sentence for remaining hostages.
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Netanyahu has offered Hamas a likelihood to give up and send its top leaders into exile. Hamas has rejected that scenario and insists on Palestinian rule. Spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou told The Associated Press the group accepts a Palestinian unity government or a technocratic committee to run Gaza.
Last week, Hamas threatened to carry up this weekend’s release of hostages because Netanyahu has yet to approve the entry of mobile homes and heavy machinery into Gaza as required by the ceasefire agreement. An Israeli official said on condition of anonymity according to regulations that the difficulty could be discussed in the approaching days, and Israel was coordinating with america.
In one other sign of closing ranks, Israel’s Defense Ministry said it received a shipment of two,000-pound (900-kilogram) MK-84 munitions from america. The Biden administration had paused a shipment of such bombs last yr over concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza.
‘If someone has a greater plan … that’s great’
In an interview last week, Rubio indicated that Trump’s Gaza proposal was partly geared toward pressuring Arab states to make their very own post-conflict plan that will be acceptable to Israel.
Rubio also appeared to suggest that Arab countries send troops to combat Hamas.
“If someone has a greater plan, and we hope they do, if the Arab countries have a greater plan, then that’s great,” Rubio said Thursday on the “Clay and Buck Show.”
But “Hamas has guns,” he added. “Someone has to confront those guys. It’s not going to be American soldiers. And if the countries within the region can’t figure that piece out, then Israel goes to should do it.”
Rubio wasn’t scheduled to satisfy with Palestinians on his trip to the Middle East.
Arabs have limited options
For Arab leaders, facilitating the mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza or battling Palestinian militants on behalf of Israel are nightmare scenarios that will bring fierce domestic criticism and potentially destabilize an already volatile region.
Egypt will host an Arab summit on Feb. 27 and is working with other countries on a counterproposal that will allow for Gaza to be rebuilt without removing its population. Human rights groups say the expulsion of Palestinians would likely violate international law.
Egypt has warned that any mass influx of Palestinians from Gaza would undermine its nearly half-century peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of U.S. influence within the region.
Arab and Muslim countries have conditioned any support for post-conflict Gaza on a return to Palestinian governance with a pathway to statehood in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories that Israel seized within the 1967 Mideast conflict.
Israel has ruled out a Palestinian state and any role in Gaza for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, whose forces were driven out when Hamas seized power there in 2007.
Rubio to go to regional heavyweights
The UAE and Saudi Arabia have rejected any mass displacement of Palestinians and could be key to any regional response.
The UAE was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords through which 4 Arab states — Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco and Sudan — normalized relations with Israel during Trump’s previous term. Trump hopes to expand the accords to incorporate Saudi Arabia, potentially offering closer U.S. defense ties, but the dominion has said that it won’t normalize relations with Israel with out a pathway to a Palestinian state.
Rubio won’t be visiting Egypt or Jordan, close U.S. allies at peace with Israel which have refused to simply accept any influx of Palestinian refugees. Trump has suggested that he might slash U.S. aid to them in the event that they don’t comply, which may very well be devastating for his or her economies.
Rubio can be skipping Qatar.
—Natalie Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel. Associated Press author Samy Magdy contributed to this report from Cairo.
