U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio fully endorsed Israel’s war goals in the Gaza Strip, saying Hamas “must be eradicated” and puts the future of a shaky ceasefire in further doubt.
Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of West Jerusalem at the start of a regional tour on Sunday, who will likely be in the U.S. President Donald Trump's The proposal is facing the overthrow of the Arab leader to allow the Palestinians to replace the Palestinian population from the stamped ZA Avenue (Gaza Strip) and redevelop it. U.S. ownership, a program called the human rights group by ethnic cleansing.
Rubio told reporters: "The president is also very bold, not the tired thoughts of the past, but new things."
Netanyahu welcomed the plan, also called it "bold" and said he and Trump had a "common strategy" for Gaza's future.
He responded to Trump's saying that if Hamas did not release dozens of kidnapped prisoners in the October 7, 2023 attack before the war, "the doors to hell will be open."
The leaders' comments came two weeks before the first phase of the first phase of the Israeli ceasefire in the war against Gaza, which killed more than 61,700 Palestinians and was about to end. Phase 2 - Hamas will release dozens of prisoners in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a protracted armistice and a withdrawal of Israeli forces - no negotiations have been made.
Rubio said Hamas “cannot continue to serve as an army or government force.”
"As long as it is a force that can be managed or a force that can be managed or may be threatened by the use of violence, peace becomes impossible," Rubio said. "It must be eliminated."
This language may complicate efforts to negotiate with Hamas, which remained intact and controlled Gaza despite the huge losses suffered in the war.
The US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Sunday that talks on the second phase of the ceasefire would continue this week, after he had “very productive and constructive” calls with Netanyahu, as well as Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Tani and Egyptian intelligence director. transparent
“(We talk about) the order of the second phase, listing positions on both sides so that we can understand… where we are today and then continue to negotiate locally this week so that we can figure out how to get to the second phase End, successful,” said Vikov.
Rubio has a traditional setup for the first time for U.S. diplomats to meet with the Israeli government, followed by the Palestinian government, which has some control in the occupied West Bank, said Nabeel Khoury. right.
"Rubio did not do that. So despite all the convenience and all the cooperation and cooperation it gave to the Israeli government, it is still a situation of authority in Palestinian," he told Al Jazeera.
"Israel will be the next stop for Riyadh and the United Arab Emirates," Khoury added.
Hamas' senior spokesman Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera that Israel's plan to drive Palestinians out of Gaza is nothing new and has been expressed before, including in the first and second Explosion.
Trump "does not know the resistance of the Palestinians. He does not know how Palestinians connect with their homelands." Hamdan said: "This is not real estate. It is a motherland."
He added that every time Israeli officials talk about Hamas’ “elimination”, the group became “stronger.”
Netanyahu said after meeting with Rubio that both Israel and the United States were determined to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions and its "aggression" in the Middle East.
Rubio said: “Behind every terrorist organization, violence, after every stable activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability, the millions of people who call residences in the region are Iran .”
Netanyahu said Israel has launched a "strong blow" to Iran in the past 16 months since the beginning of the war in Gaza began, and said it was in support of Trump Next, “I have no doubt that we can and will do this work”.
He said Israel weakened Lebanese Shia Hezbollah and encountered hundreds of targets in Syria to prevent the opening of the new Iran-backed front to Israel.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it carried out air strikes on people close to southern Gaza earlier on Sunday.
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the strike killed three policemen when they died when aid trucks entered near Rafa on the Egyptian border.
Hamas said the attack was a "serious violation" of the ceasefire and accused Netanyahu of trying to undermine the deal.
Hamdan told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu and his government's actions indicated that "the ceasefire is at risk", but Hamas will do his best to continue reaching a deal.
"I'll know very well," he said. "If Netanyahu decides to attack Gaza again, it won't be (easy) for him."