Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s first Middle Eastern trip began with his arrival in Israel late Saturday. This visit follows President Trump’s widely criticized proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.
Trump initially suggested Israel accept Gazan Palestinians on January 25th, a proposal Israel firmly rejected.
In a surprising announcement on February 4th, following a Washington meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump proposed resettling Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians, with the U.S. assuming control and ownership of a redeveloped Gaza, envisioned as the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
On February 10th, he declared that Palestinians would not have the right of return to Gaza under his plan, contradicting statements from his own officials who had implied a temporary relocation.
The president’s remarks mirrored long-held Palestinian fears of permanent displacement and drew accusations of ethnic cleansing from some critics.
A recent U.S.-backed military operation in Gaza, currently paused by a fragile ceasefire, has resulted in over 47,000 Palestinian deaths in the past 16 months, according to the Gaza health ministry, leading to allegations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.
The offensive internally displaced almost the entire Gazan population and triggered a severe food shortage.
The latest violence in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking approximately 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
During his trip, Rubio will address the Gaza situation and the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel, pursuing the Trump administration’s strategy of disrupting the regional status quo, a State Department official revealed last week.