Name: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits Israel in aftermath of Qatar strikes | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-09-19T04:38:49.000Z
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We start in Israel, where the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has arrived as anger in the Middle East grows after Israel's attack on Tuesday, which targeted the Hamas leadership in Doha.

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Marco Rubio's Tuesday visit was scheduled well before Israel's attack in Qatar, which killed several lower-ranking members of Hamas, but which the group claims its leadership survived.

He has made clear the US was not happy with the Israeli action and says he wants to know what impact the strike will have on efforts to free the hostages in Gaza.

Qatar has reacted furiously, and following emergency summits in the UN this week, has now convened a meeting of Gulf leaders on Monday to discuss possible reprisals.

Our correspondent in Jerusalem, Wira Davis, told us more about what we can expect from Marco Rubio's visit.

What would have been a very tense phone call earlier this week between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, which Mr. Trump is reported to have rebuked the Israeli leader over that audacious attack from the air on Hamas leadership in Qatar, as they were discussing Donald Trump's peace proposals or ceasefire proposals for the war in Gaza.

The Americans made it clear they were very unhappy with that.

That was repeated by Mr. Rubio before he set out for Israel.

However, what Mr. Rubio also said was that the United States still supports Israel in its ambitions for the war in Gaza, the return of the hostages, and the defeat of Hamas.

America is concerned, I think, about the war dragging on and the failure to reach a ceasefire agreement.

To that end, of course, Israel has intensified its military campaign in Gaza, issued another evacuation order for Gaza City this morning, and what is the expected demolition of another tall, high-rise building in Gaza City.

But I don't think you're going to hear much public criticism, at least of the Israelis, from Mr. Rubio today.

We're at Prime Minister Netanyahu, who said the operation on Tuesday would remove the main obstacle to ending the war.

But at the latest rally of hostage families in Tel Aviv last night, they have blamed Netanyahu, saying he is the main obstacle.

Where does this leave any attempts to get the hostages back and end this war?

The hundreds of thousands of residents in Gaza are forced to flee.

But it was pretty clear the Qataris themselves said that the attack and the consequences of that attack on Doha last week made it very, very difficult, if not impossible, to secure a deal to release the hostages.

The mother of one hostage, who, in the immediate aftermath of the attack, said that Benjamin Netanyahu had, in effect, handed her son a death sentence.

And that was certainly most of the sentiment at that very big protest by hostage families in Tel Aviv last night.

They're very worried that the lack of progress, the continuing war in Gaza, will, amongst other things, endanger the lives of the remaining hostages.

We're at Gulf Leaders, a meeting tomorrow on Monday to discuss possible reprisals.

Yeah, this is really important, and I think this is one thing that worries the Americans in particular.

The Americans do have very good relations with the Qataris.

There's a huge American airbase in Qatar.

And the potential fallout across the region will worry the Americans.

Donald Trump is trying to make trade deals across the region.

He's trying to expand accords with Arab countries.

And if they were to backtrack from some of those deals, like the Abraham Accords, it would really, I think, annoy the Americans.

And there's also the wider context as well.

Israel is stepping up the ante, as are some of its opponents.

Countries around the world who are allies of Israel, like Britain, France, and Spain, and Canada, are now saying they're going to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly later this month.

That has really annoyed the Americans, the Israelis.

And the Israelis say that, as a result of that, they're now considering partial or full annexation of the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

If that was to happen, not only would it, in effect, kill any chances of a two-state solution, it would also have huge regional repercussions with further diplomatic responses from around the region.

So it's a very tense time at which Mr Rubio arrives.

There's some very difficult diplomatic problems for him to negotiate.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visits Israel in aftermath of Qatar strikes | BBC News

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