Israel’s prime minister said he is working to make US President Donald Trump’s plan to remove and resettle Gaza’s population “a reality”.
Benjamin Netanyahu said he was cooperating with the US on a “common strategy” for Gaza after a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem on Sunday.
He said he and Rubio had discussed ways to implement Trump’s vision, which would also see the US take control of Gaza.
Rubio said the plan may have “shocked and surprised” people, but that it took courage for Trump to propose an alternative to “tired ideas” of the past.
Rubio is visiting Israel on his first tour of the Middle East as the US’s top diplomat. He is also due to meet Russian officials in Saudi Arabia in coming days for potential peace talks on the war in Ukraine – a meeting that neither Ukraine nor other European countries have been invited to.
Speaking at a joint news conference on Sunday, Rubio and Netanyahu outlined areas of agreement, including a desire to eradicate Hamas’s governing capacity, prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, and to monitor developments in a post-Assad Syria.
Netanyahu also condemned what he called “lawfare” from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which he said “outrageously libelled” Israel.
He thanked the US administration for issuing sanctions against the ICC, which last year issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former defence minister over alleged war crimes in Gaza – which Israel denies – as well as a top Hamas commander.
The US and Israel had a common position on Gaza, Netanyahu said, as he warned that the “gates of hell” would be opened if all Israeli hostages were not released.
“Hamas can not continue as a military or government force,” Rubio added. “And as long as it stands as a force that can govern or administer or a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible.”
Rubio’s visit comes after a shipment of American-made heavy bombs arrived in Israel overnight.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said his country had received a delivery of MK-84 bombs from the US late on Saturday, after Trump overturned a block on exporting the munitions placed by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Biden initially shipped thousands of MK-84s to Israel after Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, but later declined to clear the bombs for export out of concern for their impact on Gaza. The powerful 2,000-pound bombs have a wide blast radius and can rip through concrete and metal, destroying entire buildings.
Katz said the shipment represented a “significant asset” for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and served as evidence of the “strong alliance between Israel and the United States”.
Meanwhile, Hamas said an Israeli air strike had killed three police officers near Rafah in southern Gaza on Sunday, which it called a “serious violation” of the ceasefire.
The ceasefire came into force on 19 January and requires a complete pause in fighting for the first 42-day phase.
Israel said it had struck “several armed individuals” in southern Gaza.
Fears had been high this week that the fragile ceasefire agreement could collapse after a dispute over a planned hostage release, which was nearly aborted but ultimately went ahead on Saturday.
Netanyahu’s office confirmed on Sunday that an Israeli negotiating team would travel to Cairo on Monday to discuss the second phase of the ceasefire.
By BBC News
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