US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who is visiting Israel as part of an effort to advance the Gaza ceasefire to the second stage, says Donald Trump has made it clear that all the hostages need to be set free and that Hamas must be eliminated.
“Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force,” Rubio said after talks with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. “As long as it stands as a force that can govern, peace becomes impossible. They must be eliminated. It must be eradicated.”
Mr Netanyahu again described the US president as the greatest friend Israel has had in the White House, saying the two states saw eye to eye on Gaza. “We have a common strategy, and 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 of them,” he said.
Both men also described Iran as the biggest threat to the region, stressing that Tehran cannot be allowed to obtain a nuclear bomb.
The meeting came a day after three Israeli hostages – Sagui Dekel Chen, Yair Horn and Sasha Trufanov – were released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad after 498 days in captivity, in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli media reported that all three had been subjected to violence after being kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7th, 2023, and all had been held in Khan Younis.
The three men were visibly thinner than they had been before their abduction, but did not appear to be emaciated, unlike the three Israeli men who were released by Hamas the week before.
Insisting some of them were soldiers, Hamas interrogated and tortured the three hostages for intelligence. Some were held in tunnels teeming with lice and fleas, and filled with mould and mildew.
Six more living hostages, along with eight bodies, are due to be released this month, completing the first stage of the ceasefire, but Israel wants the release expedited.
Netanyahu has refused to approve the delivery of trailer homes and heavy mechanical equipment into Gaza as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement, but says the trailer homes will enter Gaza if the hostage release is moved up. Hamas urged the Qatari and Egyptian mediators to ensure that Israel met its ceasefire obligations.
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that talks on stage two of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas would continue this coming week “at a location to be determined” to figure out how to reach a successful conclusion.
Nineteen hostages and more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners have been freed in the first stage of the ceasefire deal, which began on January 19th.
Saturday’s swap came days after Hamas had said it would pause the release of hostages, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the deal – an allegation denied by Israel.
Monday marks 500 days of the Gaza war, which began with the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 when gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages. More than 48,200 people have been killed by the Israel offensive in Gaza since then, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.
Relatives of the hostages and their supporters will mark the 500 days with a 500-minute fast and a rally in Jerusalem.
Four Palestinians were shot and killed in Gaza on Sunday after Israel said they approached close to Israeli troops, who remain inside Gaza despite the ceasefire.
