Rubio starts Mideast tour in Israel as Arab states reject Trump’s ‘Gaza takeover’ plan

CAIRO – 16 February 2025: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Tel Aviv on Sunday, starting a Middle East tour that will also include Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The tour comes as US President Donald Trump faces global condemnation for his plan to "take over" Gaza and relocate residents to Egypt and Jordan, both of which have roundly rejected the proposal.

Rubio stated last week that he is open to hearing from Arab partners about any "better plan" during his Mideast tour.

“If the Arab countries have a better plan, then that’s great. Then they say they do, they’re going to come up with it, we’re going to look at it, see what it’s regarding and what it does,” Rubio told the radio show of conservative hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on Thursday.

Rubio emphasized that any plan for Gaza that leaves Hamas in place “is going to be a problem,” asserting that “someone’s going to have to go on the ground” in the Strip to “confront” armed Hamas.

“Right now, the only plan – they don’t like it, but the only plan is the Trump plan,” Rubio said. So, if they’ve got a better plan, now’s the time to present it. So, we’re looking forward to that.”

Trump’s proposal to take Gaza and relocate the two million Palestinians there to neighboring countries has faced global condemnation, with rights groups labeling the move as “ethnic cleansing.”

In a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in February, Trump asserted that the US “will take over the Gaza Strip … and be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”

He claimed that the US would transform Gaza into a development project that could become “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

The Arab League, which encompasses all 22 Arab countries of the world, warned that Trump’s proposal is “a recipe for instability.” Meanwhile, the European Union said Gaza “is an integral part of a future Palestinian state.”

In the wake of Trump’s Gaza takeover remarks, Cairo announced hosting an emergency meeting for Arab leaders on February 27 to “address the critical developments on the Palestinian cause.”

Arab states have outright rejected any ideas that involve displacing Palestinians from their lands, insisting that reconstruction efforts must proceed while Palestinians remain on their territory.