Summary
- US
Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Jerusalem with Netanyahu. - Rubio
expressed full US support for Israel against Hamas. - Priorities:
liberation of Israeli hostages and Hamas destruction. - Disapproval
of Doha Israeli strike complicating ceasefire efforts.
In his public statements beside Netanyahu, Rubio did not
bring up the prospect of a ceasefire or reiterate his previous condemnation of
Israel for launching an airstrike last week on Hamas leaders in Doha, the
capital of Qatar, another close friend of the United States.
As the Trump administration looks to minimize the harm to US
relations in the Gulf caused by the Israeli strike last Tuesday, the state
department said Rubio would stop in Doha on Tuesday on his route to London.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, stated
during an emergency Arab and Islamic meeting in Doha that Israel’s goal in
carrying out the strike was to sabotage ceasefire negotiations.
“Whoever works diligently and systematically to
assassinate the party with whom he is negotiating, intends to thwart the
negotiations,”
he told fellow leaders.
In accordance with Israel’s desire for a one-step agreement
to free all 20 hostages who are still known to be alive and the bodies of
another 28 who are supposed
to be dead, the Hamas leaders had been in Doha to negotiate a ceasefire
proposal made by Donald Trump. A gradual ceasefire deal similar to the one
proposed by US ambassador Steve Witkoff was approved by Hamas in August.
Other than stating that the US will “continue to
explore and be dedicated to” a peaceful resolution that he claimed
depended on the eradication of Hamas, Rubio made no mention of potential
ceasefire parameters in Jerusalem.
“At the end of the day, no matter what has happened or
happens, the objective remains the same, and that is all 48 of those hostages,
both living and deceased, need to be home. They need to be returned,”
he
said.
“Hamas needs to cease to exist as an armed element that
can threaten the peace and security of the region. And the people of Gaza
deserve a better future. But that better future cannot begin until Hamas is
eliminated.”
Rubio warned that the intended recognition of Palestine by
several US allies, including the UK, France, Canada, Belgium and Australia,
would make peace less likely.
“It actually makes it harder to negotiate … because it
emboldens these groups,”
he said, referring to Hamas and other Palestinian
militants. He added that the Trump administration had warned states preparing
to recognise Palestine “there will be an Israeli counter reaction to those
moves” – in what may have been a reference to a possible Israeli move to annex
occupied areas of the West Bank.
Regarding Israel’s impending ground invasion of Gaza City,
Rubio remained silent. Prior to the attack, the Israel Defense Forces had
started evacuating the city’s residents and demolishing apartment complexes, a
move that drew worldwide censure.
The majority of the estimated million Palestinians taking
refuge in the urban sprawl have chosen to remain, either because they are
unable to relocate or because they have nowhere else to go, but tens of
thousands have departed Gaza City for the south. According to humanitarian
organizations, displaced persons can no longer find a secure or acceptable
location to live in Gaza.
Ten of its buildings, including two clinics and seven
schools, have been struck by Israeli strikes in the last four days, according
to the UN relief organization Unrwa.
Netanyahu defended Israel’s tactics.
“We’re not bringing
down those towers to intimidate people. Those towers are serving as Hamas
strongholds,”
he said.
“But what we’re doing is we’re telling the
population … we ask you to leave. And what is Hamas doing? They’re asking them
to stay, because they want to use them as human shields.”
The UN rapporteur on human rights in the occupied
territories, Francesca Albanese, said the aim of the Gaza City offensive was to
make it uninhabitable.
“This is the last piece of Gaza that needs to be
rendered unlivable,”
Albanese said on Monday.
The Israeli mission to the UN rejected her remarks, blaming
Hamas for the destruction.
“According to her, Hamas doesn’t embed itself in
civilian infrastructure, doesn’t cynically use civilians as human shields, and
generally doesn’t really exist,”
it said.
The IDF chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, is widely
reported to have deep misgivings about the Gaza City offensive, arguing it
would not destroy Hamas and would be costly in the lives of Israeli soldiers
and hostages. According to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, the commander told a
Knesset committee on Friday that he had been left in the dark about the
objectives.
“The prime minister hasn’t told us what the next stage
is. We don’t know what to prepare for. If they want military rule, then they
should say military rule,”
Zamir is reported to have told the committee.
According to the same report, he described the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,
the US-Israeli backed scheme to distribute food instead of the UN, as a
“failure” and questioned why money was being spent on expanding it.
In an open letter to Zamir on Monday, the Hostages and
Missing Families Forum asked to meet him to put its case against the Gaza City
offensive.
“We demand that the fate of our loved ones not be
abandoned!”
the forum said in a social media post.
“The IDF must present
a clear policy to the public and families: no more living hostages murdered in
captivity as a result of military pressure, and no more bodies disappearing
under rubble, losing any chance to locate them and return them for proper burial.”
The emir of Qatar charged Israel with disregarding its
hostages in the Gaza Strip during the Doha meeting. Instead, he claimed, its
goal was to “make sure Gaza is no longer livable.”
The Israeli missile strike killed a Qatari security officer
and advisers to Hamas leadership. According to Israeli claims, the leaders who
were allegedly the target were at the time in another building.
Netanyahu said that his government took “full
responsibility” for the raid in Qatar, which was a “wholly
independent decision by Israel.” He maintained that the mission had
succeeded despite refusing to provide specifics about the losses.
“It didn’t fail because it had one central message … and
that is, you can hide, you can run, but we’ll get you,”
he said.
According to official estimates, Israel has murdered around
64,000 Palestinians in Gaza so far, but thousands more are thought to be buried
beneath the debris.
According to official estimates, Israel has murdered around
64,000 Palestinians in Gaza so far, but thousands more are thought to be buried
beneath the debris. Even internal IDF figures indicate that civilians have made
up the vast majority of the victims.
The international court of justice is considering claims
that Netanyahu’s government is committing genocide, and the international
criminal court has issued an arrest order for Netanyahu for war crimes. Israel
disputes the accusation, saying it was acting in self-defense following the
October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis, more than two-thirds
of them civilians.
How will Rubio’s visit affect US mediation efforts in Gaza?
Rubio’s open and public endorsement of Israel’s military
goals including its goal of destroying Hamas does solidify the strong
U.S.-Israeli relationship, but also shows less openness to Hamas or negotiating
an immediate ceasefire.
His visit signals a clear indication of unwavering U.S.
support of Israel’s right to defend itself, emphasizing U.S. focus on the
release of hostages, which can have longer-term implications for the effort to
restore a relationship with Hamas.
Rubio stressed that the United States would continue to urge
Qatar in its role as a constructive mediator, signifying that U.S. support for
mediation efforts remains wide open even in heightened tensions and violence.
