US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has fully endorsed Israel’s war aims in the Gaza Strip, saying Hamas “must be eradicated” and throwing the future of the shaky ceasefire into further doubt.
Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in West Jerusalem on Sunday at the start of a regional tour, where he is likely to face pushback from Arab leaders over US President Donald Trump’s proposal to displace the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip and redevelop it under United States ownership, a plan that human rights organisations have called ethnic cleansing.
“The president has also been very bold, not the same tired ideas of the past but something new,” Rubio told reporters.
Netanyahu welcomed the plan, also referring to it as “bold”, 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 captives abducted in its October 7, 2023 attack that preceded the war.
The leaders’ remarks came just two weeks before the first phase of the ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, is set to end. The second phase – in which Hamas is to release dozens of remaining captives 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,” Rubio said. “It must be eradicated.”
Such language could complicate efforts to continue talks with Hamas, which, despite suffering heavy losses in the war, remains intact and in control of Gaza.
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 Egypt’s director of intelligence and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.
“[We spoke about] the sequencing of phase two, setting forth positions on both sides, so we can understand… where we are today, and then continuing talks this week at a local to be determined so that we can figure out how we get to the end of phase two successfully,” Witkoff said.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed on Sunday that an Israeli negotiating team would fly to Cairo on Monday for more talks on the Gaza ceasefire agreement and its implementation.
Former US diplomat Nabeel Khoury said Rubio has broken with the traditional setup for US diplomats to first meet with the Israeli government and then the Palestinian Authority, which has some control in the occupied West Bank.
“Rubio is not doing that. So this is sidetracking the Palestinian Authority despite all the conveniences and all the cooperation and collaboration it has given the Israeli government,” he told Al Jazeera.
“The next stop after Israel is going to be Riyadh and possibly the United Arab Emirates,” Khoury added, arguing that this fits into “Trump’s vision … which is rebuilding Gaza minus the Palestinian population”.
Osama Hamdan, a senior spokesperson for Hamas, told Al Jazeera that Israeli plans to force Palestinians out of Gaza are not new and have been voiced before, including during the first and the second Intifadas.
Trump “has no clue about the resistance of the Palestinians. He has no clue about how the Palestinians are connected to their homeland”, Hamdan said, noting “It’s not real estate. It’s a homeland.”
He added that every time Israeli officials have talked about the “elimination” of Hamas, the group has only become “stronger”.
With Trump, ‘we will finish the job’
Following the meeting with Rubio, Netanyahu said Israel and the US are both determined to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and its “aggression” in the Middle East.
“Behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilising activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people that call this region home is Iran,” Rubio said.
Netanyahu said Israel had dealt a “mighty blow” to Iran over the past 16 months since the start of the war in Gaza against Hamas and said that with the support of Trump “I have no doubt we can and will finish the job”.
He said Israel had weakened the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah and had hit hundreds of targets in Syria to prevent a new Iranian-backed front from opening up against Israel.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it carried out an air strike early on Sunday on people who approached its forces in southern Gaza.
The Gaza 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 said that the attack was a “serious violation” of the ceasefire and accused Netanyahu of trying to sabotage the deal.
Hamdan told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu and his government’s actions suggest “the ceasefire is in jeopardy”, but Hamas will do its best to continue with the agreement.
“I will be clear in this,” he said. “If Netanyahu decides to attack Gaza another time, it will not be [easy] for him.”
