On Sunday, September 14, 2025, top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio began a high-profile visit to Israel, arriving in Jerusalem at a moment of extraordinary tension between Israel and its allies. Rubio’s trip comes in the immediate aftermath of an unprecedented Israeli airstrike in Doha, Qatar, targeting Hamas leaders—a move that has drawn sharp international criticism and complicated efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza.
Rubio, wearing a traditional Jewish kippa, was seen praying at Jerusalem’s Western Wall alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, according to AFP. The symbolic gesture underscored what Netanyahu later described as the “strength of ties between the allies,” even as the political landscape around them shifted dramatically.
The Israeli strike in Doha on Tuesday, September 9, targeted senior Hamas officials who were reportedly meeting to discuss a new U.S. ceasefire proposal. This marked Israel’s first such operation on Qatari soil—a dramatic escalation that risked alienating a U.S. ally and key mediator in the ongoing Gaza conflict. President Donald Trump, who has otherwise been a staunch supporter of Israel, quickly rebuked Netanyahu over the attack. “Trump was not happy about the strike,” Rubio told reporters before departing for Israel, but he insisted it was “not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis.” Still, Rubio acknowledged, “the United States and Israel are going to have to talk about” the operation’s impact on fragile truce negotiations.
Despite the diplomatic fallout, Netanyahu has remained unapologetic. Defending the decision, he stated that eliminating senior Hamas leaders would remove the “main obstacle” to ending the war. The Israeli leader’s stance has only deepened divisions with Arab and Muslim states. An emergency summit of these nations is set to convene Monday in Doha, with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani urging the international community “to stop using double standards and to punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed.” He added, “What is encouraging Israel to continue... is the silence, the inability of the international community to hold it accountable.”
Rubio’s visit, scheduled to include substantive meetings with Netanyahu and other top officials on Monday before his departure Tuesday, is widely seen as a demonstration of U.S. support for Israel amid mounting international isolation. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott emphasized that Rubio would reaffirm “our commitment to fight anti-Israel actions including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism.”
The diplomatic drama unfolds against the backdrop of an increasingly dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. In recent days, Israeli forces have ramped up their offensive to seize control of Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban center. Residents have been ordered to evacuate, and numerous high-rise buildings—allegedly used by Hamas—have been demolished. According to the United Nations, as of late August 2025, around one million people remained in Gaza City and its surrounding areas, where a famine has been declared, largely attributed to Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid.
AFP images from the ground depict a harrowing exodus: columns of vehicles and desperate families on foot fleeing south through a landscape of shattered buildings. Among them, an amputee on crutches, a couple with a newborn, and a man in a wheelchair carrying a child. “We are living in constant terror amid relentless shelling and powerful explosions,” said Sara Abu Ramadan, a 20-year-old resident of Gaza City. “Why such massive firepower in these rockets? What’s their goal? We are dying here, with nowhere to seek refuge... and the world just watches. Why so much injustice?”
The human toll continues to mount. Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that at least 38 people were killed since dawn Sunday in Israeli strikes, while other sources cited at least 12 deaths in the northern part of the territory. The Israeli military, meanwhile, issued a new evacuation order for Gaza City residents ahead of further strikes. Media restrictions and the chaos on the ground make independent verification of casualty figures difficult, but the United Nations considers the Gaza health ministry’s numbers reliable: since the outbreak of the war, at least 64,871 people—mostly civilians—have been killed in Gaza, while the initial Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 claimed 1,219 lives, also predominantly civilians.
Calls for a political solution are growing louder. On Friday, September 12, the UN General Assembly voted to support a revival of the two-state solution, defying Israeli opposition. Several Western nations, including Britain and France, are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood at a UN gathering later this month, expressing exasperation at Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza and the West Bank. Nevertheless, Israel continues to enjoy the backing of its most powerful ally and largest arms supplier—the United States.
Yet, as the war drags on, domestic pressure on Netanyahu’s government is intensifying. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, representing relatives of Israelis abducted by Palestinian militants in October 2023, has accused the prime minister of being “the one obstacle” to freeing the hostages by allegedly sabotaging efforts to strike a deal. Of the 251 people originally taken hostage, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Some analysts remain skeptical that Rubio’s visit will bring meaningful progress toward peace. Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, commented, “There is an alarming passivity in actually getting to a ceasefire in Gaza.” He suggested that the Trump administration appears more attuned to its own political base and right-wing Israeli allies than to international calls for restraint and humanitarian relief.
Rubio, for his part, has said he will seek clarity from Israeli officials about their proposed path forward in Gaza, but the enduring message of his journey is clear: despite the recent diplomatic turbulence, the U.S.-Israel alliance is, in Netanyahu’s words, “as strong, as durable as the stones in the Western Wall that we just touched.”
As the region braces for further escalation and the world’s attention remains fixed on the unfolding tragedy in Gaza, the fate of the hostages, the prospects for a ceasefire, and the future of Palestinian statehood all hang in the balance. For now, the human cost continues to rise, and the search for a lasting solution remains as urgent—and elusive—as ever.
