Middle East: Rubio arrives in Israel, along with heavy bombs

An Israeli negotiating team will travel to the Egyptian capital Cairo on Monday to discuss the "continued implementation" of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office confirmed on Sunday.

"Following the security cabinet meeting scheduled for tomorrow, the team will receive further directives for negotiations on Phase II," a statement read.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has thrown Washington's full support behind Israel's war aims in the Gaza Strip by insisting that the Palestinian militant group Hamas "must be eradicated."

Speaking after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, Rubio's remarks risk undermining the fragile ceasefire agreement, the first stage of which is due to end in two weeks' time.

"As long as it stands as a force that can govern, or as a force that can administer, or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible," he said of Hamas, which has reasserted control over Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect last month. "It must be eradicated."

Rubio then accused Iran of stoking instability in the region through its backing for militant groups such as Hamas.

"Behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilizing activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people that call this region home is Iran," he claimed.

Rubio is also set to visit the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as part of his tour of the region.

The death toll from an Israeli airstrike on the southern areas of the Gaza Strip rose to three Palestinian police officers, the Hamas-run interior ministry said, stressing the strike was a breach of the ongoing ceasefire.

The ministry said that the three police officers were deployed to the area east of Rafah to secure the entry of aid trucks into Gaza. It called upon the ceasefire mediators to "compel the occupation to stop targeting the police force, which is a civil apparatus."

The Israeli military had said the strike targeted several armed individuals it accused of moving toward Israeli forces nearby, calling on Gaza residents to stick to its instructions and refrain from approaching Israeli troops in the area.

Israel and US President Donald Trump have a "common strategy" on Gaza's future, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, after meeting US top diplomat Marco Rubio.

"We discussed Trump's bold vision for Gaza's future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality," Netanyahu told reporters, thanking Rubio for "unequivocal backing" for Israel's policy in Gaza.

Trump's highly controversial plan to "take over" Gaza and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents has prompted wide condemnation worldwide and warnings of "ethnic cleansing," including from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Palestinian authority leaders and Arab countries including Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar widely rejected the plan. Egypt is spearheading an alternative Gaza reconstruction plan that ensures Palestinians do not leave the devastated enclave.

Rubio also said on Sunday that the Palestinian militant group Hamas "must be eliminated" and that Iran was the "single greatest source of instability of the region."

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip said two police officers were killed and another injured in an Israeli airstrike near the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

"Two police officers have been martyred, and a third has been critically injured as a result of an Israeli airstrike that targeted them while they were deployed to secure aid in the Al-Shouka area, east of Rafah, this morning," the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

It said the policemen had been involved in overseeing the entry of aid trucks into the Palestinian enclave, describing the attack as a breach of the current ceasefire.

Hamas has previously accused Israel of violating the ceasefire, especially regarding the flow of aid into the strip. As a result, the group had threatened to cancel Saturday's hostage release, but mediators were able to get it to go ahead.

The Israeli military said its air force had carried out a strike on "several armed individuals" on Sunday.

"Earlier today, several armed individuals moving toward troops in the southern Gaza Strip were struck by an [Israeli Air Force] aircraft," it said in a statement.

Israel's Defense Ministry said Sunday it had taken delivery of a shipment of 2,000-pound (900 kg) bombs from the United States after US President Donald Trump lifted a suspension on their export imposed by his predecessor Joe Biden.

The MK-84 bombs are unguided munitions with a large blast radius that are capable of piercing thick concrete and metal.

"A shipment of heavy aerial bombs recently released by the US government was received and unloaded overnight in Israel," a statement from the ministry said.

"The munitions shipment that arrived in Israel, 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," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in the statement.

Although the Biden administration initially sent thousands of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel after the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas militants, it imposed the block on their export in May last year amid fears of their destructive impact in densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip. 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Israel for talks with that country's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as a fragile ceasefire continues to hold in the Gaza Strip between Israeli forces and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

During his visit, his first official trip to the region, Rubio is likely to discuss a plan by US President Donald Trump to take over Gaza, relocate all its residents and turn the Palestinian enclave into a "Riviera of the Middle East."

The proposal, while seen favorably by Netanyahu, has met with vehement opposition from Arab leaders and Palestinians and caused widespread outrage in the international community.

Rubio's visit also comes as Israel and Hamas face an imminent deadline in early March to negotiate the next phase of the ceasefire, which last week came close to collapse.

Netanyahu has indicated that he is ready to resume the war after the first ceasefire stage, despite domestic pressure to bring about the return of the remaining Israeli hostages abducted during the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that triggered the current Gaza conflict.

He has, however, offered Hamas a chance to surrender and send its top leaders into exile — a proposal so far rejected by the group, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, among others.

After visiting Israel, Rubio plans to travel to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

DW is here to keep you up-to-date on the major events surrounding the almost-month-old ceasefire in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Saturday saw the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange between the two sides under the deal, which you can read about here. 

We invite you to follow our updates as the situation in the troubled region continues to develop.