President Donald Trump may have hoped to unite the final details of a peace agreement, but instead, his main diplomat landed in Jerusalem on Sunday to put out burning tensions among American allies.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that Washington wants Israel’s responses after his unprecedented attack against Hamas leaders within Qatar, another key American partner in the Middle East. The Trump administration has tried to distance themselves from the strike, which has outraged regional powers and left efforts to end Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip. In Jirones.
But although Rubio said on Saturday that the United States was not happy with the attack against Doha, it made it clear that it would not fundamentally alter the close relationship between the two countries.
“Obviously we are not happy with that,” Rubio told journalists. “The president was not happy with that. Now we need to move forward and discover what comes next.”
He said he would talk about “what the future holds” during his two -day visit to Israel, where he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others in Jerusalem, and will visit the Walk Wall.
Rubio said that the relationship between the United States and Israel is still “very strong”, but his comments before the trip underline the awkward Washington struggle to balance relations with key allies following the attack.
Trump met with Qatar Mohammed al-Thani Prime Minister in New York on Friday. Qatar’s prime minister, who accused Israel for having “killed any hope” of reheating hostages that were still held in Gaza, also met with Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.
“Trump wants to defeat Hamas,” Rubio added on Saturday. “He wants the war to end, he wants the 48 hostages home, including the deceased, and he wants everything at once. And we will have to discuss how events last week had an impact on the ability to achieve it in a short time.”
It is also expected that possible Israeli plans to attach parts of occupied West Bank are on the agenda during Rubio’s trip.
His visit occurs only one week before several countries, including France, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, formally recognize a Palestinian state. Bezalel Smotrich, the Minister of Israeli finance of the extreme right, has requested the annexation of 82% of the West Bank to block his vision of a future Palestinian state of becoming a reality.
Trump has a “marked choice,” said Dan Shapiro, A main member of the Group of Experts of the Atlantic Council who was an ambassador of the United States in Israel during the Biden administration. You can draw a “clear line against” annexation of the West Bank and “direct the end of the war in Gaza”.
Or, Shapiro said in X, he can “see his achievement from the first term of Abraham’s agreements In La Vid, “referring to historical agreements mediated by the United States in Trump’s first mandate that saw the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain recognize the state of Israel.
Qatar is organizing a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders who begin on Sunday following the strikes, which attracted the condemnation of the EAU, Saudi Arabia and others.
Rubio will also meet with hostage families while in Israel, according to the State Department, and “underline that the return of their relatives remains a priority.” Israeli leaders are also expected to discuss the “Israeli operational objectives and objectives for the current land offensive in Gaza.
Israeli forces have intensified air attacks in the city of Gaza affected by hunger and nearby areas, which caused mass displacement and worsens humanitarian conditions.
Israeli authorities said on Saturday that approximately 250,000 Palestinians have fled the area after evacuation orders.
The bodies of 47 people killed by the Israeli army during the previous 24 hours arrived at the Gaza hospitals on Saturday, according to health officials.
Since global food security experts backed by the United Nations confirmed a famine in Gaza City on August 22, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that at least 142 people have died due to hunger and malnutrition throughout the territory.
Israel launched its military campaign after the terrorist attacks led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which saw 1,200 people killed and around 250 people taken as hostages.
Since then, Palestinian health officials say that Israeli forces have killed more than 64,000 people in Gaza, including thousands of children, while leading the majority of the population of their homes and destroying or damaging most of their buildings and infrastructure.
Netanyahu says that the city of Gaza is Hamas’ last important strength, but the plan to occupy it has generated international criticism. The UN has warned that pressing the offensive in an area that already faces famine runs the risk of pushing civilians to an “even deeper catastrophe.”
Gaza is being “completely erased,” Phillipe Lazzarini, the general commissioner of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, said Sunday, calling Enclave a “Páramo”.
“With the large -scale Israeli military operation that occurs now, political will and decision -making are needed more than ever.”
