Israel’s prime minister vowed to “open the gates of hell” if Hamas does not return all its hostages and praised President Trump’s “bold vision for Gaza’s future.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, said the United States and Israel have a “common strategy” when it comes to Gaza.
“We can’t always share the details of this strategy with the public, including when the gates of hell will be opened, as they surely will if all our hostages are not released until the last one,” the statement said. “We will eliminate Hamas’ military capability and its political rule in Gaza. We will bring all our hostages home, and we will ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.”
Rubio was in Jerusalem on Sunday as part of a regional tour where he is likely to face pushback from Arab leaders over Mr. Trump’s proposal to transfer the Palestinian population out of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it under U.S. ownership.
Rubio told “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan after he met with Netanyahu, that the U.S. and Israel are working diligently to get the hostages home.
“Obviously, there are details of how we’re pursuing that and coordinating that we’re not going to share publicly because we don’t want to endanger the hostages and we don’t want to endanger this process,” he said. “But suffice it to say that if it was up to us, every one of these hostages would be home right now, and we want it to happen as soon as possible.”
Netanyahu has welcomed the plan, saying that the “unequivocal support” from the U.S. will help Israel achieve its objectives faster and “set us on a path for a different future.”
Rubio, speaking to the press with Netanyahu on Sunday, acknowledged that Mr. Trump’s proposal to turn the Gaza Strip into a “Riviera of the Middle East” “may have shocked and surprised” many.
“The president’s also been very bold about his view of what the future for Gaza should be, not the same tired ideas of the past, but something that’s bold and something that, frankly, took courage and vision,” he said.
Their remarks came just two weeks before the first phase of the shaky ceasefire between Israel and Gaza is set to end. The second phase, in which Hamas is to release dozens of remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, has yet to be negotiated.
Rubio said Hamas “cannot continue as a military or government force.”
“As long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible,” Rubio said. “It must be eradicated.”
The secretary is not scheduled to meet with any Palestinians on this trip. Nor will he be visiting Egypt or Jordan, close U.S. allies at peace with Israel that have refused to accept any influx of Palestinian refugees.
Resuming the war could be a death sentence for the remaining hostages and may not succeed in annihilating Hamas, which survived a 15-month Israeli onslaught and quickly reasserted control over Gaza when the ceasefire took hold last month.
The Israeli military meanwhile said it carried out an airstrike Sunday on people who approached its forces in southern Gaza. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the strike killed three of its policemen while they were securing the entry of aid trucks near Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
Hamas called the attack a “serious violation” of the ceasefire and accused Netanyahu of trying to sabotage the deal.
Israel launched a 15-month war against Hamas in Gaza in response to the October 7 terrorist attack, which saw militants kill some 1,200 people in southern Israel and take 251 others hostage. The war killed more than 48,000 people in Gaza, according to the Palestinian territory’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Countering the threat from Iran
Netanyahu said he and Rubio also held a “very productive discussion” on a number of other issues, “none more important than Iran.”
He said Israel and the U.S. “stand shoulder to shoulder in countering the threat of Iran.”
“We agreed that the ayatollahs must not have nuclear weapons and also agreed that Iran’s aggression in the region must be rolled back,” he said.
Rubio said: “Behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilizing activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people that call this region home is Iran.”
The Israeli-Iranian enmity stretches back decades. Iran has backed groups across the Middle East that describe themselves as the “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and U.S. influence in the region.
Since the war in Gaza erupted, Israel has fought multiple battlefronts, including targeting the Iran-backed Hezbollah. Israel has assassinated top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah and it has exchanged limited retaliatory attacks with Iran.
Netanyahu said Israel has dealt a “mighty blow” to Iran since the start of the war in Gaza and said with the support of Mr. Trump, “I have no doubt we can and will finish the job.”
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