WhatsappUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented Wednesday night—following a meeting with his G7 counterparts in Hamilton, Ontario—on recent skirmishes between Hamas gangs and Jewish youth in Judea and Samaria, while reaffirming the Trump administration’s commitment to advancing its Gaza stabilization plan. Rubio expressed “some concern” that the conflict between Hamas-backed Arab gangs and Jewish youth in Judea and Samaria could jeopardize the fragile Gaza ceasefire, though he remained optimistic about US efforts to deploy an international stabilization force there and prevent spillover effects.
Rubio said about the violent incidents that he has some concern that this could undermine what is happening in Gaza these days. “We do not expect this to happen; we will do everything to prevent it from happening,” he said, adding, “Both President Herzog and the Israeli Chief of Staff strongly condemned these attacks. The IDF also sent forces there to deal with this because their soldiers were attacked.”
Regarding the construction of the stabilization force in Gaza that the Americans are currently working on, the Secretary of State said: “I think we have a new draft that we are working on now (the draft that was submitted to the UN). We are optimistic that it will happen. It needs to be done the right way. I think we are making good progress on the text of the resolution, and hopefully we will have some kind of declaration very soon. We do not want to lose momentum on this issue,” he replied.
Rubio was asked whether the stabilization force would act against Hamas to disarm the terrorist organization and he qualified: “There will need to be a force that will only provide basic day-to-day security. This, like everything else, the role of the stabilization force is to stabilize, not to be a fighting force,” he emphasized. “As for disarmament, this is a commitment that Hamas has made. This is a commitment that all of our partners in this deal have made. And we expect these countries – and they are – to put pressure on Hamas at the appropriate time, including now, to make it meet this commitment,” Rubio said.
