Rubio in Israel Says Hamas Must Be Eradicated, Casting Further Doubt on Gaza’s Shaky Ceasefire

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a joint statement to the media at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on February 16, 2025. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a joint statement to the media at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on February 16, 2025. (AFP)
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Rubio in Israel Says Hamas Must Be Eradicated, Casting Further Doubt on Gaza’s Shaky Ceasefire

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a joint statement to the media at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on February 16, 2025. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a joint statement to the media at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on February 16, 2025. (AFP)

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.

Readiness to resume war

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.

Rubio was not scheduled to meet with Palestinians on his Mideast trip.

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 al-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.

Israel has ruled out a Palestinian state and any role in Gaza for the Palestinian Authority, whose forces were driven out when Hamas seized power there in 2007.



Hamas Fires at Tel Aviv in First Riposte to Deadly Israel Assault

Palestinians gather around bodies outside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza - AFP
Palestinians gather around bodies outside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza - AFP
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Hamas Fires at Tel Aviv in First Riposte to Deadly Israel Assault

Palestinians gather around bodies outside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza - AFP
Palestinians gather around bodies outside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza - AFP

Hamas said it fired rockets at Israeli commercial hub Tel Aviv on Thursday in its first military response to the growing civilian death toll from Israel's resumption of air and ground operations in Gaza.

Israel said it had closed off the territory's main north-south route as troops expanded the ground operations they resumed on Wednesday.

Gaza's civil defense agency said 504 people had been killed so far in the Israeli assault, including more than 190 children. Its previous death toll was at least 470.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said it fired rockets at Tel Aviv in response to Israel's "massacres" of Gaza civilians.
The Israeli army said it intercepted one projectile fired from Gaza and that two others struck an uninhabited area, AFP reportd.

After weeks of stalemate, Israel resumed its air campaign early Tuesday with a wave of deadly strikes that drew widespread condemnation.

The offensive shattered a relative calm that had pervaded in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory since a ceasefire took hold on January 19.

At the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, grieving families knelt by the bodies of their loved ones enveloped in blood-stained white shrouds.

"We want a ceasefire! We want a ceasefire!" one of them, Mohammed Hussein, told AFPTV, appealing for the international community to stop the killing.

"We are defenceless Palestinian people," he added.

On Thursday, the Israeli army banned traffic on the territory's main north-south artery.

Palestinians were seen fleeing south along Salaheddin Road near the Nusseirat refugee camp atop donkey-drawn carts piled high with belongings.

"Over the past 24 hours, Israeli soldiers have begun a targeted ground operation in the central and southern Gaza Strip in order to expand the security zone between the northern and southern parts," army spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X.

Movement along Salaheddin Road between the north and south of the Gaza Strip is prohibited "for your safety", he said.

"Instead, travel from northern Gaza to the south is possible via the Al-Rashid coastal road," Adraee added, without spelling out whether that meant movement from south to north was banned.

Asked by AFP for clarification, the army had no immediate comment.

- 'Inhumane ordeals' -

An official from Gaza's Hamas-run interior ministry said the Israeli army had closed what it calls Netzarim Junction, on Salaheddin Road just south of Gaza City, on Wednesday evening.

The official said Israeli tanks had deployed at the junction, where the road artery crosses Israel's main supply route, "following the withdrawal of American special security forces yesterday (Wednesday) morning".

He was referring to American private security contractors deployed in February after the pullback of Israeli forces under the terms of the January ceasefire.

The first stage of the ceasefire expired early this month amid deadlock over next steps.

Israel rejected negotiations for a promised second stage, calling instead for the return of all of its remaining hostages under an extended first stage.

That would have meant delaying talks on a lasting ceasefire, and was rejected by Hamas as an attempt to renegotiate the original deal.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) on Thursday deplored "an endless unleashing of the most inhumane ordeals" on the people of Gaza since Israel resumed its military offensive.

"Israeli Forces bombardment continues from air & sea for the third day," Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. "Under our daily watch, people in Gaza are again & again going through their worst nightmare."