Rubio landed at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning. Later, according to the AFP correspondent report, he prayed together with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called Rubio an “extraordinary friend” of Israel. The visit of the US foreign minister show “the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” said Netanyahu. “It is as strong and constant as the wailing wall that we have just touched.”
An official conversation between the two politicians is planned for Monday. Rubio said the effects of the Israeli attack in Qatar on the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Islamist Hamas. According to Israel, the attack on Tuesday had taken leaders of the radical Islamic Palestinian organization. It was the first time that Israel attacked a goal in Qatar that occurs as an intermediary in the Gaza War alongside the USA and Egypt.
Qatar and other countries in the region reacted outraged and accused Israel of a violation of the sovereignty of the Gulf state. On Monday, heads of state and government of Arab and Muslim states want to meet in Doha in order to show the attacked country its solidarity.
There was also sharp criticism of the attack from the West. US President Trump was “extremely sad about the location of the attack” and assured that he had not been informed beforehand.
Regardless of the criticism, Netanyahu defended the procedure: the “Hamas terrorist chiefs” living in Qatar did not take care of the people in the Gaza Strip and “have blocked all attempts from a ceasefire to end the war endlessly,” he said on Saturday. “Getting rid of them would remove the main obstacle to the release of all our hostages and the end of the war.”
The forum of the hostage families, on the other hand, sharply criticized the Israeli government’s approach. The attack in Qatar had “demonstrated without doubt that there was an obstacle to the return of the hostages and the end of the war: Prime Minister Netanyahu,” said the initiative. “Every time an agreement is evident, it is sabotaged by Netanyahu.”
In the past few days, Israel had expanded his offensive to take the city of Gaza, which she describes as one of the last Hamas strongholds. According to the army, more than 250,000 Palestinians have fled to other parts of the Gaza Strip since then. The Hamas Civil protection, on the other hand, said that only around 68,000 inhabitants had managed to escape from the city.
At the weekend, AFP pictures showed a column of vehicles and people on foot that fled south through a bleak landscape with destroyed buildings. Among them were an amputator on crutches and a couple with a newborn. “We live in constant fear in the middle of relentless shelling and violent explosions,” said 20-year-old Sara Abu Ramadan, a resident of Gaza City. “We die here, without a refuge … and the world just watches.”
Internationally, the expansion of the Israeli offensive is sharply criticized. The UN, which has found a famine in parts of the Gaza Strip, fears a worsening of the catastrophic humanitarian situation. Some states now want to increase the pressure on Israel by recognizing a Palestinian state during the general debate of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Among other things, France, Great Britain, Belgium and Canada have announced or promised such a step. On September 22nd, a summit is to be held for the Palestinian areas in New York.
Worldwide, more than 140 countries have recognized a Palestinian state, including several EU members such as Spain and Ireland. The Federal Government said in July that this step was out of the question for them “at short notice”.
The Hamas and their Islamist allies had triggered the Gaza War on October 7, 2023. According to Israeli information, more than 1200 people were killed in the major attack. 251 people were delayed as hostages in the Gaza strips. 47 people are still held by Hamas, 25 of them are already dead according to Israeli information.
In response to the Hamas robbery, Israel is massively military in the Gaza Strip. According to the Hamas authorities, more than 64,800 people have so far been killed. The numbers are not verifiable from an independent side, but the UN considers it credible.
