Star Metro - Rubio talks Gaza with Netanyahu after Qatar strike

Rubio scheduled a solidarity visit a week before a French-led summit at the United Nations to recognise a Palestinian state, a prospect fervently opposed by Netanyahu's right-wing government.

But talks were made more difficult last week when President Donald Trump's administration was caught off guard by an Israeli attack in Qatar against Hamas leaders who were meeting to discuss a new US ceasefire proposal for Gaza.

Rubio met with Netanyahu one-on-one for about an hour and a half before starting an expanded meeting with aides, according to a US official.

Rubio said he would speak to Netanyahu about Israeli military plans to seize Gaza City, the largest urban centre in the devastated territory, as well as the government's talk of annexing parts of the occupied West Bank in hopes of precluding a Palestinian state.

Rubio said Trump wants the Gaza war to be "finished with" -- which would mean the release of hostages and ensuring Hamas is "no longer a threat".

Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed another 17 people on Monday, all but one in Gaza City, said Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the Gaza civil defence agency.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

- 'Eternal capital' -

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the Israelis were pushing more residents into the already overcrowded Al-Mawasi, which lacks basics such as food and water and where disease is spreading.

The war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 64,871 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Trump, for years a fervent defender of Netanyahu, on Sunday again voiced support for Qatar, which is home to the largest US air base in the region and has assiduously courted the US president, including by gifting a luxury jet.

"Qatar has been a very great ally. Israel and everyone else, we have to be careful. When we attack people we have to be careful," said Trump.

But the United States has not joined European powers in pressing Israel to end the offensive, who fear it will aggravate the already severe humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where most of its 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once since the outbreak of the war.

Despite the objections over the Qatar strike, Rubio opened the visit on Sunday with a highly symbolic show of support as he joined Netanyahu at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray.

With Rubio at his side, Netanyahu said the Israel-US alliance has "never been stronger".

- Controversial tunnel -

Rubio, a devout Catholic, later posted that his visit showed his belief that Jerusalem is the "eternal capital" of Israel.

Until Trump's first term, US leaders had shied away from such overt statements backing Israeli sovereignty over contested Jerusalem, which is also holy to Muslims and Christians.

Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, in a sharp break with most of the world.

Hamas called Rubio's prayer stop a "blatant assault on the sanctity" of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Muslim sacred site above, and a "flagrant violation of the historical and legal status quo in occupied Jerusalem".

Rubio separately is expected Monday to attend the inauguration of a tunnel for religious tourists that goes underneath the Palestinian neighourhood of Silwan to the holy sites.

The project has stirred fears among Palestinian residents that it could further dilute their presence, allowing Israelis to bypass Palestinians and possibly putting at risk the physical foundations of their homes.

Fakhri Abu Diab, 63, a community spokesman in Silwan, said Rubio should instead come to see homes, such as his own, that have been demolished by Israel in what Palestinians charge is a targeted campaign to erase them.

"Instead of siding with international law, the United States is going the way of extremists and the far right and ignoring our history," he said.

Rubio played down the political implications, calling it "one of the most important archaeological sites in the world".

X.Gaboury--SMC