
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has fully endorsed Israel’s war aims in the Gaza Strip, saying Hamas “must be eradicated” and throwing the future of the shaky ceasefire into further doubt.
Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in West Jerusalem on Sunday at the start of a regional tour, where he is likely to face pushback from Arab leaders over US President Donald Trump’s proposal to displace the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip and redevelop it under United States ownership, a plan that human rights organisations have called ethnic cleansing.