JERUSALEM — President Donald Trump may have hoped to be stitching together the final details of a peace deal, but instead his top diplomat landed in Jerusalem on Sunday to douse blazing tensions between U.S. allies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signaled that Washington wants answers from Israel after its unprecedented attack on Hamas leaders inside Qatar, another key American partner in the Middle East. The Trump administration has sought to distance itself from the strike, which has outraged regional powers and left efforts to end Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip in tatters.
But while Rubio said Saturday that the U.S. was unhappy about the attack on Doha, he made clear that it would not fundamentally alter the close relationship between the two countries.
“Obviously we’re not happy about it,” Rubio told reporters. “The president was not happy about it. Now we need to move forward and figure out what comes next.”
He said he would talk about “what the future holds” during his two-day visit to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others in Jerusalem.
Speaking on a joint visit to the Western Wall, Netanyahu said that ties between the two countries had "never been stronger."
Rubio's visit was “a testament to the durability, the strength of the Israeli-American alliance. It’s as strong and as durable as the stones of the Western Wall we just touched,” Netanyahu said.
Rubio said the U.S.-Israel relationship remains “very strong,” but his comments ahead of the trip underline Washington's awkward scramble to balance relations with key allies in the wake of the attack.
Trump met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in New York on Friday. The Qatari premier, who accused Israel of having “killed any hope” of releasing hostages still held in Gaza, also met with Rubio and Vice President JD Vance.
“Trump wants Hamas defeated,” Rubio added Saturday. “He wants the war to end, he wants all 48 hostages home, including those that are deceased, and he wants it all at once. And we’ll have to discuss about how the events last week had an impact on the ability to achieve that in short order.”
Possible Israeli plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank are also expected to be on the agenda during Rubio’s trip.
His visit comes just a week before several countries, including France, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, are expected to formally recognize a Palestinian state. Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister, has called for the annexation of 82% of the West Bank to block any vision of a future Palestinian state from becoming a reality.
Trump has a “stark choice,” said Dan Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank who was U.S. ambassador to Israel during the Biden administration. He can draw a “clear line against” West Bank annexation and “steer an end to the war in Gaza.”
Or, Shapiro said on X, he can “watch his first term achievement of the Abraham Accords wither on the vine,” referring to landmark deals mediated by the U.S. in Trump’s first term that saw the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain recognize the state of Israel.
Qatar is hosting a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders starting Sunday in the wake of the strikes, which drew condemnation from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and others.
Rubio was also set to meet with families of hostages while in Israel, according to the State Department, and “underscore that their relatives’ return remains a top priority.” He and Israeli leaders are also expected to discuss “Israeli operational goals and objectives” for the ongoing ground offensive in Gaza.
Israeli forces have intensified aerial attacks on famine-stricken Gaza City and nearby areas, ordering the evacuation of two high-rise buildings Sunday morning as they continued a wave of strikes.
“Gaza’s skyline is changing,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said on X as he posted footage of an airstrike leveling one high-rise.
The offensive has prompted mass displacement and worsening humanitarian conditions. Israeli authorities said Saturday that roughly 250,000 Palestinians have fled the area after evacuation orders.
Forty-one people had been killed by the Israeli military since dawn Sunday, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told NBC News.
Since United Nations-backed global food security experts confirmed a famine in Gaza City on Aug. 22, Gaza’s health ministry has reported that at least 142 people have died from starvation and malnutrition across the territory.
Israel launched its military campaign after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 people taken hostage.
Since then, Palestinian health officials say, Israeli forces have killed more than 64,000 people in Gaza, including thousands of children, while driving most of the population from their homes and destroying or damaging most of its buildings and infrastructure.
Netanyahu says Gaza City is Hamas’ last major stronghold, but the plan to occupy it has drawn international criticism. The U.N. has warned that pressing the offensive in an area already facing famine risks pushing civilians into an “even deeper catastrophe.”
Gaza is being “completely obliterated,” Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said Sunday on Facebook, calling the enclave a “wasteland.”
“With the large-scale Israeli military operation happening now, political will and decision-making is needed more than ever.”
Abigail Williams reported from Jerusalem and Freddie Clayton from London.
