Rubio meets Netanyahu in Israel as U.S. ally Qatar gathers Arab neighbors to sentence Doha assault

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Monday in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as shut U.S. ally Qatar gathered different Arab nations’ leaders for a summit to subject unified condemnation of final week’s Israeli airstrike concentrating on Hamas leaders within the Qatari capital.

On Sunday, President Trump urged Netanyahu’s authorities to be “very cautious” following the airstrike in Doha. 

“They must do one thing about Hamas, however Qatar has been an awesome ally to america,” Mr. Trump informed reporters at Morristown airport in New Jersey. 

Talking Monday alongside Rubio, Netanyahu heaped reward on the Trump administration for its staunch, more and more distinctive worldwide help of Israel’s ways in its ongoing warfare in opposition to Hamas — which has lengthy been designated a terrorist group by the U.S., Israel and the European Union — within the Gaza Strip. 

“Your presence right here as we speak sends a transparent message that America stands with Israel,” Netanyahu mentioned.

The Israeli chief has vigorously defended final week’s strike in Doha, saying Israeli fighter jets focused senior Hamas leaders liable for the Hamas-led, Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist assault that killed some 1,200 folks and noticed 251 others taken as hostages again into Gaza.

Hamas has mentioned that 5 of its members have been killed, however that Israel did not kill its supposed targets — senior members of the group’s political negotiating group, who’ve lengthy been based mostly in Doha, with the information and backing of each Israel and the U.S. 

Rubio, pressed to reply to the anger in Doha over the strike final week, informed reporters on the information convention with Netanyahu that “we’ve sturdy relationships with our Gulf allies… We’ve been engaged with them persistently earlier than what occurred and after what occurred.”

“No matter what has occurred, the fact is we nonetheless have 48 hostages. We nonetheless have Hamas that’s holding Gaza hostage and utilizing civilians as human shields… so long as they’re round there shall be no peace on this area,” Rubio mentioned. 

A senior State Division official informed CBS Information Monday that Rubio will journey to Qatar after his Israel go to, earlier than flying to the UK for President Trump’s state go to there. 

Addressing reporters Saturday at Joint Base Andrews previous to his departure, Rubio mentioned he could be talking with Netanyahu to “get a a lot better understanding of what their plans are shifting ahead.”

“What’s occurred has occurred. Clearly, we weren’t joyful about it. The president was not pleased with it,” Rubio mentioned, referring to the strike in Doha. “Now we have to transfer ahead and work out what comes subsequent. As a result of on the finish of the day, when all is alleged and performed, there may be nonetheless a bunch known as Hamas, which is an evil group that also has weapons and is terrorizing.” 

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani issued a contemporary condemnation of Israel’s assault on Sunday, and he known as “for the worldwide group to cease its double requirements and punish Israel for its crimes.”

Qatar is a key U.S. ally and it has lengthy hosted the most important American army base within the Center East, the Al-Udeid Air Base, the place there are literally thousands of U.S. troops based mostly.

A supply aware of the discussions on the emergency Arab and Muslim leaders summit in Doha on Monday informed CBS Information a draft decision would see them condemn, Israel’s “hostile acts together with genocide, ethnic cleaning, [and] hunger” in Gaza, which, it is going to say, threatens “prospects of peace and coexistence” within the area.

Israel has vehemently denied a number of accusations that its warfare in Gaza quantities to a genocide in opposition to Palestinians, arguing that its army marketing campaign is solely in opposition to Hamas militants whom it accuses of placing civilians in harms manner through the use of them as human shields.  

The supply aware of the draft assertion from the Doha summit mentioned the decision would name “on the worldwide group to coordinate efforts to impose worldwide sanctions on Israel — suspending the availability of weapons, munitions, and army materials, and reviewing diplomatic and financial relations — to cease its crimes in opposition to the Palestinian folks and assaults on regional nations.”

Israel’s warfare has killed greater than 64,000 Palestinians within the almost two years because it started, in response to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Well being, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians. Israel rejects that determine however has not supplied its personal estimate and doesn’t allow international journalists to enter Gaza and function independently. 

The United Nations considers the tally from the Gazan well being ministry probably the most dependable info out there on the warfare’s dying toll.

Final month, Israel declared Gaza Metropolis, the Palestinian Territory’s largest inhabitants heart, a “harmful fight zone” and a Hamas stronghold. In latest days, Israeli army forces have ramped up an aerial assault on the town, toppling a number of extra high-rise buildings on Sunday in what was already an apocalyptic panorama.

The U.N. Basic Meeting overwhelmingly voted Friday to help a two-state answer to the Israel-Palestinian battle — the long-standing name for an impartial Palestinian state to be created alongside Israel as a part of a negotiated peace settlement, which has been a cornerstone of U.S. international coverage for many years. 

President Trump, who beforehand voiced help for a two-state answer, has extra not too long ago distanced his administration from adherence to that goal, regardless of rising help internationally for Palestinian statehood.

Israel and the U.S. have been among the many 10 nations that voted in opposition to the decision, and earlier than the vote, Netanyahu reiterated his authorities’s stance that, “there shall be no Palestinian state.”

The U.N. decision additionally condemned Israel’s alleged assaults on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza and its “siege and hunger, which have produced a devastating humanitarian disaster and safety disaster.”

The non-binding decision, which 142 nations supported, additionally known as for the discharge of all remaining Israeli hostages and outlined a imaginative and prescient through which the Palestinian Authority, which presently partially administers the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, would govern and management all Palestinian territory, with a transitional administrative committee instantly established underneath its umbrella after a ceasefire in Gaza.

“Within the context of ending the warfare in Gaza, Hamas should finish its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority,” the declaration mentioned.