Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government is working closely with the US to implement Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, which involves US ownership of the coastal strip, the removal of more than 2 million Palestinians and the redevelopment of the occupied territory as a resort.
The Israeli prime minister was speaking after a meeting in Jerusalem with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who defended the Trump plan as bold and visionary. Rubio and Netanyahu blamed Iran for the violence in the Middle East and insisted Tehran would be stopped from developing nuclear weapons.
Trump’s shock proposal earlier this month for a “Riviera of the Middle East” has been condemned around the world as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing, but Rubio and Netanyahu insisted it would proceed.
“We discussed Trump’s bold vision for Gaza’s future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality,” Netanyahu told reporters after the meeting, which overran by an hour. “We have a common strategy, and we can’t always share the details of this strategy with the public”.
He did say, however, that it included opening “the gates of hell” on Gaza, a phrased used by Trump, if all the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups were not released.
Rubio promoted the Trump plan as a breakthrough. “It may have shocked and surprised many,” he said. “But what cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place.”
Neither Rubio nor Netanyahu answered questions at their press event in Jerusalem. Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Saturday night that he hoped the mass transfer of Palestinians from Gaza endorsed by Trump could begin soon. He said he expected Palestinians would be forced to leave by a resumption of bombing.
“It’s a process I hope will begin in the coming weeks,” he told Israel’s Channel 12. “Even if it’s slow at first, it will gradually pick up pace and intensify. There won’t be anything for the Gazans in Gaza for the next 10 to 15 years. After we go back to fighting, and all of Gaza looks like Jabaliya, there definitely will be nothing for them there.”
Smotrich was referring to Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, which was flattened by blanket bombing during 15 months of conflict.
He said that ultimately the vast majority of Palestinians would want to leave, and that the challenges for Israel would be finding countries willing and able to take 2 million Palestinians, coupled with “the huge logistical operation to get such vast numbers of people out of here”.
The planned removal of Palestinians from Gaza is a potential crime against humanity. The international court of justice is already examining allegations of genocide against Israel, and the international criminal court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Netanyahu denounced both courts for what he called “lawfare”, thanked the Trump administration for placing sanctions on the ICC, and suggested more joint action against international judicial institutions was being planned.
“The secretary and I discussed working together to formulate a common strategy to deal with the threat of lawfare and neutralise this threat once and for all,” he said.
Neither Netanyahu nor Rubio addressed the terms of the Gaza ceasefire, other than to demand the return of all hostages. The Israeli prime minister depends on Smotrich’s party for his governing coalition to survive, and the latter restated his opposition to the current deal and his desire to see it collapse.
“The current deal is bad but I very much hope it is temporary,” Smotrich said in his Saturday night interview.
The Israeli government is reportedly seeking to change the terms of the agreement with Washington’s backing. It is calling for the six surviving hostages who remain in Gaza scheduled to be released in the first phase of the agreement to be freed all at once next Saturday, rather than in two groups of three over the final two weeks of the first phase, which ends on 1 March.
Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday he had told US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, that Israel’s security cabinet would convene on Monday to discuss the second phase. The agreement had envisaged the talks would start in the first week of February, but he had so far prevented negotiators from discussing the issue.
Israeli political analysts say he fears that the implementation of the second phase could trigger the collapse of his coalition, leading to new elections and increasing his legal jeopardy in his trial on corruption charges.
In an embodiment of the Trump administration’s unconditional support for Israel, a shipment of US-made heavy bombs arrived in the port of Ashdod on Saturday night.
The Biden administration had suspended delivery of the 2,000lb (907kg) MK-84 bombs on the grounds that they were too indiscriminate and could cause too many civilian casualties in a densely populated area such as Gaza. Trump immediately lifted the ban when he assumed office.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said in a statement on Sunday morning: “The munitions shipment that arrived in Israel tonight, released by the Trump administration, represents a significant asset for the air force and the IDF, and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States.”
At Sunday’s press statement in Jerusalem, Netanyahu and Rubio began their presentations on Iran, which they said was primarily responsible for all the instability and violence in the region. Netanyahu said they agreed that Tehran could never have nuclear weapons and that “Iran’s aggression in the region has to be rolled back”.
“There can never be a nuclear Iran, a nuclear Iran that could then hold itself immune from pressure and from action. That can never happen,” Rubio said. “Behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilising activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people who call this region home, is Iran.”
During Trump’s first administration, Netanyahu failed to convince him to participate in joint strikes against Iran’s nuclear programme, but the heightened rhetoric of the new administration has raised questions about whether the Israeli prime minister might succeed this time.
