Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed over the weekend that President Donald Trump’s framework for peace in Gaza along with the release of the remaining Israeli hostages being held by Hamas had been accepted by the terrorist group.
Rubio made his comments during a Sunday interview with “Fox News Sunday” guest host Gillian Turner.
“On Monday, President Trump gave Hamas a deadline of 6pm tonight to accept all 20 points of his proposed plan. Then Friday, Hamas came forward and said well, we accept one. Are you concerned at all that this is a play for more time? A stalling tactic?” Turner asked.
“I don’t think that’s an accurate, a fairly inaccurate description of what’s happened here. Two, the way to think about this is two-fold. Number one, is Hamas has accepted the entire construct of President Trump’s proposal for releasing the hostages. That’s number one, ok. Forty-eight, twenty that are alive, twenty-eight that are deceased,” Rubio said.
“There is talks ongoing which will hopefully be finalized very quickly on the logistics of that. You know, who’s going to go in, what time are they gonna be released, how’s all that going to work,” Rubio continued.
“The second part of this, and it’s gonna be a much tougher part of it is, what happens after that. Whose gonna run Gaza moving forward? It can’t be Hamas, it can’t be a terrorist organization,” he added.
Rubio also said that expelling terrorists from Gaza is part of a long-term plan to bring stability to the region.
“Ultimately, that is what permanent peace is going to be dependent upon, and that is that Gaza is no longer controlled by a terrorist organization like Hamas,” he said. “The top priority first and foremost is all forty-eight hostages being released as soon as possible.”
“It seems like a bitter pill for the Israelis to swallow,” Turner responded, noting the release of terrorists in exchange for the return of Israeli hostages.
Secretary Rubio said that efforts to secure the release of hostages often result in difficult or uneven agreements, which in some cases have included the release of captured terrorists by the hostages’ home countries.
