The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has arrived in Israel seeking to mend a rift with Washington’s other allies in the region over Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar and the accelerated expansion of settlements on the occupied West Bank.
In talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Rubio will try to balance criticism of the Israeli airstrike on a Doha building, which killed aides to a Hamas leader and a Qatari security officer, with a message of overall support for Israel before the expected formal recognition of Palestine by a number of other US allies, including the UK, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium.
Rubio, before his departure on Sunday, told reporters: “Obviously, we’re not happy about it. The president was not happy about it. Now we need to move forward and figure out what comes next.” He stressed the incident was “not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis”.
The Netanyahu government is seeking to play down any rift with the Trump administration over the Doha strike, while remaining defiant over the attack.
“We have a very close dialogue with the administration. We’re coordinated with them and, relatively speaking, the American reaction was reasonable,” the Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said on Israeli army radio. “At the UN security council they expressed reservations, but the reservations were minor. We took into account that this would have a price.
“The Qataris are trying to ride on this. From their perspective, they are leveraging this incident. From our perspective, we delivered the clear message that we will pursue the terrorists everywhere.”
Asked if he was concerned about threats by Israeli officials to carry out further strikes in Qatar, Rubio said: “We’re going to meet with them. We’re going to talk about what the future holds. I’m going to get a much better understanding of what their plans are moving forward.
After Israel, Rubio is due to join Trump’s planned visit to Britain this week, which will reportedly soon receive its first group of injured and sick children from Gaza for treatment.
While in Jerusalem on Sunday, Rubio will visit the Western Wall with Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
The unprecedented attack by Israel against Hamas leaders in an upmarket neighbourhood of Doha on Tuesday marked Israel’s first such strike against US ally Qatar, putting renewed strain on diplomatic efforts to bring about a truce in war-ravaged Gaza and drawing international criticism.
Trump has openly chided Netanyahu over the attack, which targeted Hamas leaders gathering to discuss a new ceasefire proposal put forward by the US.
Netanyahu has defended the operation, saying on Saturday that killing senior Hamas officials would remove the “main obstacle” to ending the war.
The talk of a ceasefire, still out of reach after months of failed negotiations, came as Israel has been intensifying its campaign in the Gaza Strip.
In recent days, it has ramped up efforts to seize control of Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban area, telling residents to evacuate and blowing up numerous high-rise buildings it said were being used by Hamas.
While thousands of people have evacuated the city, according to the Israeli military and Hamas, many more remain.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said 32 people were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday.
Netanyahu and his government have defied international criticism throughout the nearly two-year war, but it continued to mount this week.
On Friday, the UN general assembly voted to back a revival of the two-state solution, in open defiance of Israeli opposition.
Israeli allies Britain and France, alongside several other western countries, are preparing to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN gathering this month out of exasperation at Israel’s conduct of the Gaza war and in the occupied West Bank.
London and Paris, joined by Berlin, also called for an immediate halt to Israel’s offensive in Gaza City. Nevertheless, Israel retains the backing of its most powerful ally and biggest arms supplier, the US.
Before Rubio’s visit, the state department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the US’s top diplomat would show “our commitment to fight anti-Israel actions including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism”.
“He will also emphasise our shared goals: ensuring Hamas never rules over Gaza again and bringing all the hostages home.”
In Israel, opponents of the Netanyahu government have sought to put pressure on ministers to end the war in return for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
On Saturday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main campaign group, accused the Israeli prime minister of being the “one obstacle” to freeing the hostages and accused him of repeatedly sabotaging ceasefire efforts.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by Hamas militants in October 2023, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 whom the Israeli military says are dead.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 64,803 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which the UN considers reliable.
With Agence France-Presse and Reuters
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
