Steven Witkoff, the real estate investor forging President Trump’s Middle East diplomatic deals

Analysis Steven Witkoff, the real estate investor forging President Trump’s Middle East diplomatic deals
Witkoff, a Jew with close ties to Israel and business links to the Arab world, feels a deep connection to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and Israel’s devastating war on Gaza that followed. (AFP/File)
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Updated 29 January 2025
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Steven Witkoff, the real estate investor forging President Trump’s Middle East diplomatic deals

Steven Witkoff, the real estate investor forging President Trump’s Middle East diplomatic deals
  • The envoy, currently visting the region, helped seal the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas
  • Has little diplomatic experience but fits the Trump mold as loyal and a tough negotiator

LONDON: When President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff viewed with his own eyes on Wednesday the devastation wrought on Gaza, it might have taken him back to another apocalyptic vision in his home city of New York.

The real estate investor and developer, who has been credited with an instrumental role in securing the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, was watching from his office window as the Twin Towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Bronx-born Witkoff rushed to pick up his children before heading to Ground Zero. According to the book “The New Kings of New York,” he spent much of the night holding a rope attached to a firefighter digging through debris for survivors.

“Guys who had uniforms on are walking up these staircases to rescue people, and they all died,” Witkoff said of the terror attacks. “They didn’t go home to their families. That’s when I remember thinking: ‘I cannot do enough.’”




Witkoff is one of Trump’s closest friends, golf partner and a fellow New Yorker, who has known the president for decades. (AFP)

It may have been a similar sentiment that drove the 67-year-old billionaire to accept an offer from his close friend Trump to take on one of his administration’s most challenging foreign policy positions.

Witkoff, a Jew with close ties to Israel and business links to the Arab world, feels a deep connection to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and Israel’s devastating war on Gaza that followed.

He has spoken movingly about the suffering of Israeli hostages, but also described a unity with those who lost children throughout the conflict by drawing parallels with his own grief. Witkoff’s son Andrew died from an opioid overdose at the age of 22 in 2011.

A Middle Eastern diplomat told NBC News that Witkoff talked about his son during the ceasefire negotiations, telling officials he “empathizes with parents who have lost children on both sides.”

In remarks in New York on Sunday night, he said: “I’m always comparing my family and what it went through when I lost my boy, Andrew, and what it must have been like for these families not knowing what was going to happen to their girls.

“So, when the president asked me to do this, I thought to myself, this will be the most worthy thing I could ever do in my life. Nothing else would matter beyond this.”




Displaced Palestinians return to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip. (AP)

When Trump appointed Witkoff in November he was an outsider to the traditional world of diplomacy, with no foreign policy experience.

Yet, this fits the Trump mold perfectly — selecting his most important team members based on two criteria: that he trusts them implicitly and that they can ruthlessly close a deal.

With the Gaza ceasefire in place and progressing through the first of three phases, attention will now be drawn to how Witkoff can keep the process on track.

But he is already looking further ahead to whether the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab countries reached during Trump’s first term could be expanded to include Saudi Arabia and other countries such as Qatar.

BIO

Name: Steven Charles Witkoff

Birth: March 15, 1957

Occupation: Real estate investor and developer

Home city: New York


If successful, attention would turn to whether the Trump administration could finally broker the ultimate deal — a permanent peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Gaza ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration. The deal led to rare cooperation between the incoming administration and the outgoing Joe Biden presidency.

While the main terms of the agreement had been largely the same for eight months, it was Trump’s demand that it should be in place before he took office or there would be “all hell to pay” that added the necessary pressure.




Liri Albag reunited with family at an army screening point in Reim in southern Israel. (AFP)


The man turning the screws on both sides was Witkoff.

As details of the deal emerged, so did Israeli media reports that Trump’s envoy had deployed his ruthless streak to get things over the line.

He called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Friday Jan. 11 from Qatar, where the negotiations were taking place, to say he would fly to Israel to discuss the agreement the following afternoon.

When Netanyahu’s aides suggested he would not be available during the Jewish Sabbath, Witkoff delivered an unequivocal “salty” response and the meeting went ahead.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Witkoff told Netanyahu: “The president has been a great friend of Israel, and now it’s time to be a friend back.” Netanyahu was forced to accept the agreement, bringing a halt to 15 months of fighting and starting a series of exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

In a subsequent interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Witkoff said: “We had a discussion with the prime minister about how we needed to get focused in a short period of time and get organized so that we could get to the finish line.

“He convened what looked to me like maybe nine, 10, 11 of the top commanders in the Israeli armed forces. He gave direction to his team to be very proactive, and that was the difference maker.”




Netanyahu, left, was forced to accept the agreement, bringing a halt to 15 months of fighting and starting a series of exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. (Israeli PM’s office)


Merissa Khurma, Middle East Program director at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington, said that while Biden’s team also deserved credit, it was the pressure from Trump and his relationship with Witkoff that was key to getting the agreement done.

“Empowered with this trust that he (Witkoff) has from President Trump and given that he was clearly given the green light to pressure both sides to make this happen he was able to be very effective,” Khurma told Arab News.

“Without this pressure, that was important not just on Hamas, but particularly on Netanyahu himself, it would have been very difficult to pull this through.”

Witkoff is one of Trump’s closest friends, golf partner and a fellow New Yorker, who has known the president for decades.

He was raised on Long Island and studied law at Hofstra University. He joined the Dreyer & Traub legal firm where Trump was a client, but his ambitions switched — he wanted to become one of the real estate tycoons he was representing.

He started a company in 1985 that bought up relatively cheap New York tenement buildings, often doing maintenance work himself.

When he moved over to office buildings, things took off and in 1997 he set up the Witkoff Group. Purchases of famous New York skyscrapers including the Woolworth and Daily News buildings followed. More recently he has focused on Florida, where he relocated in 2019.

An indication of his business links with Arab countries came in 2023 when the Witkoff Group sold Manhattan’s Park Lane Hotel to the Qatari Investment Authority for $623 million.

Real estate associates described Witkoff as “smart, personable and a talented negotiator with a common touch,” the Journal reported.




Witkoff was expected to be in Israel on Wednesday to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire in Gaza and inspect Israeli “corridors” carved through the territory. (AP)

His friendship with the president has grown deeper during personal traumas. At the Republican National Convention in July, Witkoff described how Trump, “a kind and compassionate person,” had helped him get through the grief of losing his son. He was then invited to speak at a White House Summit on the opioid crisis in 2018.

Witkoff was playing golf with Trump in Florida in September when a second assassination attempt was made on the future president.

It was during Trump’s second run at the presidency that Witkoff’s role became more prominent.

He was a key fundraiser, providing a link to wealthy Jewish donors and in an early test of his diplomatic skills he was deployed on several occasions to smooth things over between Trump and prominent Republicans.

In the announcement of his appointment, Trump’s brief statement said: “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud.”

The selection of a trusted businessman with no diplomacy experience matched Trump’s appointment of Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, to the same position in his first term.

Kushner oversaw the Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic and trade relations between Israel and the UAE, along with Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.




Witkoff has spoken movingly about the suffering of Israeli hostages. (AFP)

While the Accords are often criticized because they had little Palestinian involvement, they were still heralded as a major breakthrough in the Middle East and a big foreign policy win for the Trump administration.

“This transactional nature of dealmaking works very well with the regional leaders, particularly in the GCC,” Khurma said.

They are not really threatened by Trump’s “America First” strategy, she added. They also want to see “the Middle East great again” and want to work toward that.

Placing Witkoff as his Middle East figurehead, even without the deep regional understanding, shows how much Trump trusts him to deliver his version of transactional, dealmaking diplomacy.

“We have people that know everything about the Middle East, but they can’t speak properly,” Trump said of Witkoff earlier this month. “He is a great negotiator, that’s what I need.”




Thousands of Palestinians have headed back to their homes in the north since a ceasefire deal was agreed. (AP)


However, as Trump found out this week when he suggested that large numbers of Palestinians could be moved out of Gaza permanently, not fully grasping the regional dynamics can cause problems. The president’s idea was met with strong rebuttals from Jordan and Egypt.

Beyond ensuring the ceasefire plan progresses to the next phase, Witkoff will be pushing for a normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Saudi Arabia’s firm position is that ties with Israel would only happen once a Palestinian state has been established.

Witkoff was expected to be in Israel on Wednesday to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire in Gaza and inspect Israeli “corridors” carved through the territory.




Placing Witkoff as his Middle East figurehead, shows how much Trump trusts him to deliver his version of transactional, dealmaking diplomacy. (AP)

There is already concern over whether the next phase of the ceasefire will hold, with Netanyahu under pressure from the hardline members of his government. Witkoff will have to deploy all of his boardroom nous to keep the fragile ceasefire, in a complex and devastating conflict, on track.

“The Middle East envoy does not necessarily understand all the different dynamics at play but it seems that he has good rapport with the Arab allies of the United States,” Khurma said.

“But they’re going to have to be confronted with a very delicate balancing act with regard to how they support Israel, but at the same time exert the necessary pressure to keep things moving.”

 


Netanyahu signals he’s moving ahead with Trump’s idea to transfer Palestinians from Gaza

Netanyahu signals he’s moving ahead with Trump’s idea to transfer Palestinians from Gaza
Updated 6 sec ago
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Netanyahu signals he’s moving ahead with Trump’s idea to transfer Palestinians from Gaza

Netanyahu signals he’s moving ahead with Trump’s idea to transfer Palestinians from Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday signaled that he was moving ahead with US President Donald Trump’s proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza, calling it “the only viable plan to enable a different future” for the region.
Netanyahu discussed the plan with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who kicked off a Middle East visit by endorsing Israel’s war aims in Gaza, saying Hamas “must be eradicated.” That created further doubt around the shaky ceasefire as talks on its second phase are yet to begin.
Rubio, in his upcoming stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is likely to face more pushback from Arab leaders over Trump’s proposal, which includes redeveloping Gaza under US ownership. Netanyahu has said all emigration from Gaza should be “voluntary,” but rights groups and other critics say that the plan amounts to coercion given the territory’s vast destruction.
Netanyahu said he and Trump have a “common strategy” for Gaza. Echoing Trump, he said “the gates of hell would be open” if Hamas doesn’t release dozens of remaining hostages abducted in the militant group’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that triggered the 16-month war.
The ceasefire’s first phase ends in two weeks. Negotiations were meant to begin two weeks ago on the second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces
Trump’s special Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, told Fox News that “phase two is absolutely going to begin” and he had ”very productive” calls Sunday with Netanyahu and officials from Egypt and Qatar, which serve as mediators, about continuing talks this week. He also said hostages to be released include 19 Israeli soldiers and “we believe all of them are alive.”
Netanyahu’s office said Israel’s security Cabinet would meet Monday to discuss the second phase.
Trump later told journalists it is “up to Israel what the next step is, in consultation with me.”
In another sign of closing ranks, Israel’s Defense Ministry said it received a shipment of 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) MK-84 munitions from the United States. The Biden administration paused a shipment of such bombs last year over concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza.
Resuming the war could doom hostages
This week marks 500 days of the war. Netanyahu has signaled readiness to resume the fighting after the ceasefire’s current phase, though it could be a death sentence for remaining hostages.
Rubio said peace becomes impossible as long as Hamas “stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence,” adding, “It must be eradicated.”
Hamas reasserted control over Gaza when the ceasefire began last month, despite suffering heavy losses.
Netanyahu has offered Hamas a chance to surrender and send 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.
Netanyahu instructed negotiators to leave for Cairo on Monday to discuss further implementation of the ceasefire’s first phase, as issues over delivery of shelter materials continue.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it carried out an airstrike on people who approached forces in southern Gaza. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said it killed three of its police officers while they secured the entry of aid trucks near Rafah on the Egyptian border.
‘If someone has a better plan ... that’s great’
In an interview last week, Rubio indicated that Trump’s Gaza proposal was in part aimed at pressuring Arab states to make their own postwar plan that would be acceptable to Israel.
Rubio also appeared to suggest that Arab countries send troops to combat Hamas.
“If the Arab countries have a better 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 in the region can’t figure that piece out, then Israel is going to have to do it.”
Rubio wasn’t scheduled to meet with Palestinians on his trip.
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 would bring fierce domestic criticism and potentially destabilize an already volatile region.
Egypt hosts an Arab summit on Feb. 27 and is working with other countries on a counterproposal that would allow for Gaza’s rebuilding 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 US influence in the region.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia also have rejected any mass displacement of Palestinians.
The UAE was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords in which four Arab states — Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco and Sudan — normalized relations with Israel during Trump’s previous term. Trump hopes to expand the accords to include Saudi Arabia, potentially offering closer US defense ties, but the kingdom has said it won’t normalize relations with Israel without a pathway to a Palestinian state.
Rubio won’t be visiting Egypt or Jordan, close US allies at peace with Israel that have refused to accept any influx of Palestinian refugees. Trump has suggested he might slash US aid if they don’t comply, which could be devastating for their economies.
Rubio is also skipping Qatar.
Arab and Muslim countries have conditioned any support for postwar Gaza on a return to Palestinian governance with a pathway to statehood in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories that Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war.
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.
 


US military says airstrike in Syria kills leader of Al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din

US military says airstrike in Syria kills leader of Al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din
Updated 17 February 2025
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US military says airstrike in Syria kills leader of Al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din

US military says airstrike in Syria kills leader of Al-Qaeda affiliate Hurras al-Din

RIYADH: A senior official of an Al-Qaeda affiliate was killed during an airstrike by American forces in northwest Syria, the US Central Command, or Centcom said on Sunday.

In a statement posted on the X platform, CENTCOM said the "precision airstrike" targeted and killed "a senior finance and logistics official in the terrorist organization Hurras al-Din (HaD), an Al-Qaeda affiliate."

It said the operation "is part of CENTCOM's ongoing commitment, along with partners in the region, to disrupt and degrade efforts by terrorists to plan, organize, and conduct attacks" against civilians and military personnel from the US and its allies.

"We will continue to relentlessly pursue terrorists in order to defend our homeland, and US, allied, and partner personnel in the region,” the statement quoted Centcom chief Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla as saying.

Last January 30 in Syria, a Hurras al-Din leader was also reported killed in a US military airstrike that targetted his vehicle on a highway near the village of Batabo in northwest Syria.

The US military has around 900 troops in Syria as part of the international coalition against the Daesh group. The coalition was established in 2014 to help combat the armed group, which had taken over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria.

(With AFP)

 

 


Turkish opposition party delegation meets with Kurdish leader in Iraq as part of PKK peace efforts

Turkish opposition party delegation meets with Kurdish leader in Iraq as part of PKK peace efforts
Updated 17 February 2025
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Turkish opposition party delegation meets with Kurdish leader in Iraq as part of PKK peace efforts

Turkish opposition party delegation meets with Kurdish leader in Iraq as part of PKK peace efforts
  • Ocalan, 75, founded the PKK, in 1978, which began an armed insurrection for an autonomous Kurdish state in Turkiye’s southeast in 1984, costing tens of thousands of lives

BAGHDAD: A Turkish opposition party delegation arrived in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region Sunday against the backdrop of peace efforts between Ankara and a banned Kurdish separatist movement in Turkiye.
The delegation led by Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan, two senior officials with the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, in Turkiye, met with Masoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party — the dominant Kurdish party in Iraq — in Irbil Sunday.
Barzani’s office said in a statement that they discussed “the peace process in Turkiye” and that the Turkish delegation conveyed a message from Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of Turkiye’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Barzani “stressed the need for all parties to intensify their efforts and endeavors to enable the peace process to achieve the desired results” and reiterated “his full readiness to provide assistance and support to the peace process in Turkiye and make it a success,” the statement said.
The DEM party has long pressed for greater democracy in Turkiye and rights for the country’s Kurdish population, and also to improve conditions for the imprisoned Ocalan.
Ocalan, 75, founded the PKK, in 1978, which began an armed insurrection for an autonomous Kurdish state in Turkiye’s southeast in 1984, costing tens of thousands of lives. The group is considered a terrorist organization by Turkiye and its Western allies. The central Iraqi government in Baghdad announced a ban on the group, which maintains bases in northern Iraq, last year.
Captured in 1999 and convicted of treason, Ocalan has been serving a life sentence on Imrali island in the Marmara Sea.
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has traditionally had an antagonistic relationship with the left-wing DEM party, frequently ousting its elected officials on charges of ties to the PKK and replacing them with state appointed officials.
However, this icy relationship began thawing last October, when Erdogan’s coalition partner, far-right nationalist politician Devlet Bahceli suggested that Ocalan could be granted parole, if his group renounces violence and disbands.
The peace effort comes at a time when Erdogan may need support from the DEM party in parliament to enact a new constitution that could allow him to stay in power for unlimited terms.
The Turkish Constitution doesn’t allow Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003 as prime minister and later as president, to run for office again unless an early election is called — something that would also require the support of the pro-Kurdish party.
Even as the latest peace efforts are underway, Erdogan’s government has widened a crackdown on the opposition, arresting journalists and politicians. Several elected Kurdish mayors have been ousted from office and replaced with state appointed officials, the latest this Saturday, when the mayor of Van municipality in eastern Turkiye was removed from his post and replaced with the state-appointed governor.
Meanwhile, conflict is ongoing between Turkish-backed armed groups and Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.
Turkiye views the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed military Kurdish alliance in Syria, as an extension of the PKK. The SDF is in negotiations with the new government in Damascus following the ouster of then Syrian President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive.
While most former insurgent groups have agreed to dissolve and integrate into the new Syrian army, the SDF has refused so far.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Saturday that the government would reconsider its military presence in northeastern Syria if that country’s new leaders eliminate the presence of the PKK in the area. Also Saturday, Kurds in northeastern Syria staged a mass protest to demand Ocalan’s release.
 

 


Syria’s new leader visits former Assad strongholds

Syria’s new leader visits former Assad strongholds
Updated 17 February 2025
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Syria’s new leader visits former Assad strongholds

Syria’s new leader visits former Assad strongholds
  • Latakia and Tartus are also home to Assad ally Russia’s only two military bases outside the former Soviet Union

DAMASCUS: Syrian interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa visited Latakia and Tartus on Sunday, his office said, making his first official trip to the coastal provinces formerly known as strongholds of ousted ruler Bashar Assad.
Sharaa met with “dignitaries and notables” during his visit, the Syrian presidency said on Telegram.
It published images of Sharaa meeting with dozens of people, some apparently religious figures, in the two provinces’ capital cities.
Earlier Sunday, Latakia province’s official Telegram channel published footage showing thousands of people gathered in the city, some taking photos, as Sharaa’s convoy passed through.
Sharaa’s Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham led the rebel offensive that ousted Assad in December, and he was appointed interim president last month.
Assad’s hometown is located in Latakia, which along with neighboring Tartus is home to a large number of the country’s Alawite community, a branch of Shiite Islam to which Assad’s family belonged.
Assad had presented himself as a protector of minorities in multi-ethnic, multi-confessional Syria, but largely concentrated power in the hands of his fellow Alawites.
Latakia and Tartus are also home to Assad ally Russia’s only two military bases outside the former Soviet Union.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, Latakia saw violence after Assad’s fall that has since eased somewhat, though occasional attacks are still carried out on checkpoints.
State news agency SANA, citing the interior ministry, said Sunday that a security patrol had been attacked in the province, wounding two patrol members and killing a woman.
Latakia has also seen reprisals against people seen as linked to the former government, though such incidents have also decreased recently, the Britain-based Observatory added.
Security operations have previously been announced in the province in pursuit of “remnants” of the ousted government’s forces.
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said that “there are still thousands of officers from the former regime present in Latakia and who haven’t settled their status” with the new authorities.
Sharaa’s visit could be a message that there is “no possibility for the regime of Bashar Assad to move in Latakia or on the Syrian coast,” he told AFP.
Despite reassurances from Syria’s new authorities that minorities will be protected, members of the Alawite community in particular fear reprisals because of the minority’s link to the Assad clan.
Sharaa’s visit followed trips to Idlib, the rebels’ former bastion, and Aleppo a day earlier.
 

 


Israel security cabinet to discuss new phase of Gaza truce after Rubio visit

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Updated 17 February 2025
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Israel security cabinet to discuss new phase of Gaza truce after Rubio visit

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
  • Netanyahu’s office said he would convene a meeting of his security cabinet on Monday to discuss phase two
  • It said the prime minister was also dispatching negotiators to Cairo Monday to discuss the “continued implementation” of phase one

JERUSALEM: Israel’s security cabinet was set to discuss on Monday the next phase of the ceasefire in Gaza, after top US diplomat Marco Rubio and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu presented a united front on their approach to Hamas and Iran.
Rubio was in Israel on his first Middle East trip as President Donald Trump’s secretary of state.
“Hamas cannot continue as a military or a government force... they must be eliminated,” Rubio said of the Palestinian group that fought Israel for more than 15 months in Gaza until a fragile ceasefire took effect on January 19.
Standing beside him, Netanyahu said the two allies had “a common strategy,” and that “the gates of hell will be opened” if all hostages still held by militants in Gaza are not freed.
The comments came a day after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners — the sixth such swap under the ceasefire deal, which the United States helped mediate along with Qatar and Egypt.
Israel and Hamas have traded accusations of ceasefire violations, and adding to strain on the deal is Trump’s widely condemned proposal to take control of rubble-strewn Gaza and relocate its more than two million residents.
“We discussed Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality,” Netanyahu said.
The scheme that Trump outlined earlier this month as Netanyahu visited Washington lacked details, but he said it would entail moving Gazans to Jordan or Egypt.
Trump has suggested the coastal territory could be redeveloped into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Washington, Israel’s top ally and weapons supplier, says it is open to alternative proposals from Arab governments, but Rubio has said that for now, “the only plan is the Trump plan.”
However, Saudi Arabia and other Arab states have rejected his proposal, and instead favor — as does much of the international community — the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday said establishment of a Palestinian state was “the only guarantee” of lasting Middle East peace.
Hamas and Israel are implementing the first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire, which nearly collapsed last week.
“At any moment the fighting could resume. We hope that the calm will continue and that Egypt will pressure Israel to prevent them from restarting the war and displacing people,” said Nasser Al-Astal, 62, a retired teacher in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis.
Since the truce began last month, 19 Israeli hostages have been released in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Out of 251 people seized in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.
In a statement, Rubio condemned Hamas’s hostage-taking as “sick depravity” and called for the immediate release of all remaining captives, living and dead, particularly five Israeli-American dual nationals.
Negotiations on a second phase of the truce, aimed at securing a more lasting end to the war, could begin this week in Doha, a Hamas official and another source familiar with the talks have said.
Netanyahu’s office said he would convene a meeting of his security cabinet on Monday to discuss phase two.
It said the prime minister was also dispatching negotiators to Cairo Monday to discuss the “continued implementation” of phase one.
The team would “receive further directives for negotiations on Phase II” after the cabinet meeting, the office said.
The Gaza war triggered violent fallout throughout the Middle East, where Iran backs militant groups including in Yemen and Lebanon.
Israel fought a related war with Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, severely weakening it.
There were also limited direct strikes by Iran and Israel against each other.
The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,271 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.
On Sunday, Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed three police officers near south Gaza’s Rafah in what the militant group called a “serious violation” of the truce.
Israel said it had struck “several armed individuals” in south Gaza.
It is at least the second Israeli air strike in Gaza since the ceasefire began.