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JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday, during a visit to Israel, that Washington would give its ally “unwavering support” in the Gaza war and called for Hamas’s eradication.
“The people of Gaza deserve a better future, but that better future cannot begin until Hamas is eliminated,” Rubio told reporters next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“You can count on our unwavering support and commitment to see come to fruition.”
Netanyahu said Rubio’s visit was a “clear message” the United States stood with Israel and praised President Donald Trump for his backing, calling him the “greatest friend that Israel has ever had.”
Rubio criticized plans by Western nations to recognize a Palestinian state, saying they “emboldened” Hamas. “They’re largely symbolic... the only impact they actually have is it makes Hamas feel more emboldened,” he said.
Rubio had said he would discuss with Netanyahu Israeli plans to seize Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban center, as well as the government’s talk of annexing parts of the occupied West Bank in hopes of precluding a Palestinian state.
The secretary of state had also said Trump wanted the Gaza war to be “finished with” — which would mean the release of hostages and ensuring Hamas is “no longer a threat.”
But talks were made more difficult last week when the Trump administration was caught off guard by an Israeli attack in Qatar against Hamas leaders who were meeting to discuss a new US ceasefire proposal for Gaza.
“We sent a message to terrorists: you can run but you cannot hide,” Netanyahu said Monday.
The “raid didn’t fail. It had one central message.”
Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed another 17 people on Monday, all but one in Gaza City, said Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the Gaza civil defense agency.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defense agency or the Israeli military.

- ‘Eternal capital’ -

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the Israelis were pushing more residents into the already overcrowded Al-Mawasi, which lacks basics such as food and water and where disease is spreading.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed at least 64,871 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Trump, for years a fervent defender of Netanyahu, has voiced support for Qatar, which is home to the largest US air base in the region and has assiduously courted the US president, including by gifting a luxury jet.
“Qatar has been a very great ally. Israel and everyone else, we have to be careful. When we attack people we have to be careful,” he said on Sunday.
Qatar has, along with Egypt and the United States, led mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas.
But the United States has not joined European powers in pressing Israel to end the offensive, who fear it will aggravate the already severe humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where most of its 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once since the outbreak of the war.
Despite the objections over the Qatar strike, Rubio opened the visit on Sunday with a highly symbolic show of support as he joined Netanyahu at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray.
With Rubio at his side, Netanyahu said the Israel-US alliance has “never been stronger.”

- Controversial tunnel -

Rubio, a devout Catholic, later posted that his visit showed his belief that Jerusalem is the “eternal capital” of Israel.
Until Trump’s first term, US leaders had shied away from such overt statements backing Israeli sovereignty over contested Jerusalem, which is also holy to Muslims and Christians.
Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, in a sharp break with most of the world.
Rubio is expected Monday to attend the inauguration of a tunnel for religious tourists that goes underneath the Palestinian neighourhood of Silwan to the holy sites.
The project has stirred fears among Palestinian residents that it could further dilute their presence, allowing Israelis to bypass Palestinians and possibly putting at risk the physical foundations of their homes.
Fakhri Abu Diab, 63, a community spokesman in Silwan, said Rubio should instead come to see homes, such as his own, that have been demolished by Israel in what Palestinians charge is a targeted campaign to erase them.
“Instead of siding with international law, the United States is going the way of extremists and the far right and ignoring our history,” he said.
Rubio played down the political implications, calling it “one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.”

AZGOUR: As rains swept into Morocco’s Atlas Mountains earlier this month, 72-year-old Lahcen Abarda rushed to reinforce the plastic sheeting of the tent where he has lived for the past two years.
Abarda, a victim of the 2023 earthquake that killed nearly 3,000 people, says he has already had to repair his tent from sun and wind damage as he still waits for promised aid to build a new house.
“I have been living in plastic tents since my home was destroyed,” said Abarda, a subsistence farmer, who shares the tent with his two daughters. “Whenever I ask, they say you will benefit later.”

INVESTMENTS IN STADIUMS FOR THE 2030 WORLD CUP
Two years on from Morocco’s 6.8-magnitude quake, the pace of recovery efforts has frustrated many victims, and critics point to a contrast to the country’s fast-paced investments in stadiums and infrastructure projects ahead of the African Cup of Nations in December and the 2030 World Cup.
Last week, on the second anniversary of the quake, dozens of survivors staged a protest in front of Morocco’s parliament in Rabat, calling on the government to take reconstruction aid as seriously as World Cup projects.
They held banners with the names of villages destroyed by the earthquake and chanted slogans including, “Quake money, where did it go? To festivals and stadiums.”
“We are happy to see large stadiums, theaters and highways in Morocco. But there is also a marginalized and forgotten Morocco that needs political will,” said Montasir Itri, a leader in the group supporting quake survivors.
The government has spent 4.6 billion Moroccan dirhams ($510 million) on housing aid for quake victims as of September, offering 140,000 dirhams (about $15,500) in aid for totally destroyed homes and 80,000 for partially damaged ones.
By comparison, it has allocated more than 20 billion dirhams to prepare stadiums for global tournaments.
Overall, sentiment in Morocco is broadly positive around the World Cup preparations, which authorities say will boost the country’s profile and bring economic growth and new jobs.
Moroccan officials deny prioritising World Cup spending over quake recovery efforts, and Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch has praised the pace of reconstruction.
“There are not many tents left,” Akhannouch told state TV, promising to address remaining cases individually.

’TWO-SPEED’ MOROCCO
Dismantled tents line the road to the Atlas village of Sellamte, which was hit hard by the quake. Many of the tents’ one-time residents have moved into concrete houses built with reconstruction aid.
According to government data, out of 59,675 homes damaged in the quake, 51,154 homes have been rebuilt. Local authorities in Al Haouz said only 4 percent of homes have yet to begin construction. They also said all tents had been dismantled.
But Itri’s group disputes these figures, saying many survivors are still living in tents and even for those who have secured new housing, aid has not been enough.
Construction worker Mohamed Ait Batt told Reuters he received only 80,000 dirhams to restore his partially demolished house. But then he was told to relocate to an area near the village without receiving enough aid.
“We were planning a wedding for my son, but the money we received wasn’t enough to build. We used all his savings, and we still have more to do,” he said, inside the unfinished home he shares with his wife and daughter
About an hour’s drive away, in the village of Anerni, new one-floor brick homes with uniform facades have replaced the diversity of traditional mud, stone and wood houses unique to the Amazigh-speaking Atlas people. Beside them stand rows of makeshift tin shelters.
Inside one, Aicha Ait Addi sat on a plastic mat and poured tea.
“My house was fully destroyed. When I complain, they tell me I wasn’t living here. But I have a home here. Do they want me to abandon my village?” she said.
Morocco, where some cities enjoy European-like living standards, has reduced poverty rates from 11.9 percent in 2014 to 6.8 percent in 2024.
Yet its rural areas still show above-average poverty, according to the national statistics agency. King Mohammed VI, who sets Morocco’s policy direction, has acknowledged the divide.
“It is not acceptable for Morocco – today or at any time in the future – to be a two-speed country,” he said in a July speech, urging reforms to address rural poverty.