Marco Rubio arrives in Israel on first journey to Center East as U.S. secretary of state

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Marco Rubio arrives in Israel on first journey to Center East as U.S. secretary of state

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel late on Saturday on his first journey to the Center East, after a extensively condemned proposal by President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians in Gaza.

Trump first floated the suggestion that Egypt and Jordan ought to soak up Palestinians from Gaza on January 25, a proposal they strongly opposed.

TRUMP’S GAZA RELOCATION PROPOSAL SPARKS HEATED DEBATE AMONG PALESTINIANS: ‘NO LIFE LEFT HERE’

In a shock announcement on February 4, after assembly Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, Trump proposed resettling Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians and the U.S. taking management and possession of the demolished seaside enclave, redeveloping it into the “Riviera of the Center East.”

On February 10, he mentioned Palestinians wouldn’t have the proper of return to Gaza beneath his plan, contradicting his personal officers who had urged Gazans would solely be relocated briefly.

Israel’s International Minister Gideon Sa’ar welcomes U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he arrives in Israel, on the primary leg of his Center East journey, in Tel Aviv, Israel, February 15, 2025. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool)

The U.S. president’s feedback echoed long-standing Palestinian fears of being completely pushed from their properties and have been labeled as a proposal of ethnic cleaning by some critics.

U.S. ally Israel’s navy assault on Gaza, now paused by a fragile ceasefire, has killed greater than 47,000 Palestinians within the final 16 months, the Gaza well being ministry says, and provoked accusations of genocide and struggle crimes that Israel denies.

The assault internally displaced almost all of Gaza’s inhabitants and triggered a starvation disaster.

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The most recent bloodshed within the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian battle was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostages, Israeli tallies present.

Rubio will talk about Gaza and the aftermath of the Hamas assault on Israel in the course of the journey, and can pursue Trump’s strategy of attempting to disrupt the established order within the area, a State Division official mentioned final week.