JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday fully endorsed Israel’s war aims in the Gaza Strip, saying Hamas “must be eradicated” and throwing the shaky ceasefire into further doubt.
Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem at the start of a regional tour, where he is likely to face pushback from Arab leaders over President Donald Trump’s proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of Gaza and redevelop it under US ownership.
Netanyahu has welcomed the plan, and said he and Trump have a “common strategy” for Gaza’s future. Echoing Trump, he said “the gates of hell would be open” if Hamas does not release dozens of remaining hostages abducted in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the 16-month war.
Their remarks came two weeks before the ceasefire’s first phase is set to end. The second phase, in which Hamas is to release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, has yet to be negotiated.
Rubio said Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force. “As long as it 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, peace becomes impossible,” he said. “It must be eradicated.”
Such language could complicate continued talks with Hamas, which remains in control of Gaza despite suffering heavy losses in the war.
The Israeli military meanwhile said it carried out an airstrike Sunday on people who approached its forces in southern Gaza. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the strike killed three of its policemen while they were securing the entry of aid trucks near Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
Hamas called the attack a “serious violation” of the ceasefire and accused Netanyahu of trying to sabotage the deal.
Resuming the war could doom hostages
Resuming the war could be a death sentence for the remaining hostages and may not succeed in eliminating Hamas, which reasserted control over Gaza when the ceasefire took hold last month.
Netanyahu has signaled readiness to resume the war after the current phase and has offered Hamas a chance to surrender and send its top leaders into exile.
Hamas has rejected such a scenario, and spokesman Abdul Latif Al-Qanou told The Associated Press the group accepts either a Palestinian unity government or a technocratic committee to run Gaza. The group insists on Palestinian rule.
Hamas last week threatened to hold up the latest 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, before proceeding with the release Saturday based on what it called assurances from Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt.
An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the issue would be discussed in the coming days and that Israel was coordinating with the United States.
In another sign of the allies 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 had paused a shipment of such bombs last year over concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza.
‘If someone has a better plan ... that’s great’
In a radio interview last week, Rubio indicated that Trump’s proposal was in part aimed at pressuring Arab states to come up with their own postwar plan that would be acceptable to Israel.
He also appeared to suggest that Arab countries send in troops to combat Hamas.
“If someone has a better plan, and we hope they do, 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 was not scheduled to meet with Palestinians on his Mideast 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 will host an Arab summit on Feb. 27 and is working with other countries on a counterproposal that would 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 US influence in the region.
“The continuation of the conflict and broadening its scope will harm all parties without exception,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said Sunday, according to a statement from his office.
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 Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war.
