Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to visit Israel later this week, making him the latest senior Trump administration official to travel to the Jewish state to try to ensure the ceasefire holds and that day-after talks continue to progress.
Rubio is scheduled to land in Israel on Thursday and will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, according to Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian. His trip follows Vice President JD Vance‘s visit, along with presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former foreign policy adviser Jared Kushner.
The Trump administration is pushing to keep the ceasefire and day-after talks moving forward despite acts of violence in Gaza that threaten to derail the deal.
This will be Rubio’s second visit to Israel this month after attending Trump’s historic speech to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Oct. 13.
“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people in Gaza but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said alongside Netanyahu on Wednesday.
While the ceasefire has largely held since both sides agreed to it, a primary source of concern has been Hamas’s refusal to disarm and give up governance of Gaza. Of particular concern to the White House is intelligence indicating that Hamas is using the truce as a window for extrajudicial killings of rival gang members.
Hamas never agreed to demilitarize, even though it was part of Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, and Israeli leaders consider it the primary goal of the war that has been fought over the last two years.
Trump has warned that if the terrorist organization does not lay down its weapons, it will be forced to do so, “perhaps violently.”
“Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and ‘straighten our Hamas’ if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us,” Trump asserted.
U.S. Central Command established a Civil-Military Coordination Center in Israel last week to act as the primary coordination hub for Gaza assistance. The roughly 200 U.S. troops involved in the mission won’t be in Gaza but will facilitate the flow of humanitarian, logistical, and security assistance from Israel.
“Bringing together stakeholders who share the goal of successful stabilization in Gaza is essential for a peaceful transition,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM. “Over the next two weeks, U.S. personnel will integrate representatives from partner nations, nongovernmental organizations, international institutions, and the private sector as they arrive to the coordination center.”
GAZA CEASEFIRE ‘RENEWED’ AFTER STRIKES ON HAMAS, IDF SAYS
Earlier this week, the State Department revealed it had “credible reports” that Hamas would carry out “an imminent ceasefire violation” against “the people of Gaza,” but the statement did not provide specifics.
As part of the agreement, Hamas agreed to hand over all living and deceased hostages within three days of the deal’s implementation. It freed the 20 living hostages and has only given up about half of the bodies of the other 28. The U.S.-designated terrorist group insisted it has been unable to locate some of the bodies due to the destruction across the strip.
The bodies of 15 hostages remain unaccounted for.
