There’s “not enough attention being paid to the fact that 20 people that had nothing to do with this are being held hostage in tunnels on the verge of death.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio against backdrop of Israel and Palestine flags on geopolitical map.(photo credit: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS, SHUTTERSTOCK)ByJERUSALEM POST STAFFUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that Hamas cannot continue to exist or govern the Gaza Strip if peace in the region is the goal in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday evening.
Rubio told Larry Kudlow on Fox Business Network that international media has not had any “real talk about how Hamas needs to be disarmed and disbanded.”
He went on to say that he believed that the Israeli government had three interrelated problems.
“The first is there is a humanitarian problem that needs to be addressed. We’re working very hard to figure out ways to address it in ways that doesn’t benefit Hamas but that allows people to be fed and prevents a further humanitarian problem there that we’re seeing now,” Rubio said.
“The second is that there are 20 innocent human beings that are being held hostage in horrifying conditions.
Family representatives of the hostages are now demonstrating at Hostages Square under the banner “Never Again.” (credit: Paulina Patimer)
“The third is that as long as Hamas exists, there will not be peace. There cannot be a permanent peace. It’ll restart again if Hamas remains. “
Rubio went on to say that although the US was going to continue to closely monitor the humanitarian aid situation in Gaza, his priority was getting the hostages out and making sure Hamas would be disarmed.
Attention on humanitarian situation in Gaza
“There’s a lot of attention being paid to the humanitarian, and we want to do everything we can to be helpful on the humanitarian problem, but not enough attention being paid to the fact that 20 people that had nothing to do with this are being held hostage in tunnels on the verge of death, and no real talk about how Hamas needs to be disarmed and disbanded,” he said.
“We have to focus more on those two things. You have to do all three, and all the talk is about humanitarian – which is important; we are willing to do a lot to be helpful there – but we have to focus on the other two.”
Rubio added that US President Donald Trump has pushed to have Hamas release all of the hostages held in Gaza.
“The President has said he wants all the hostages out – not five, not seven, all of them, including the deceased hostages. And ultimately, Hamas cannot continue to exist. Even the Arab League says it.
“As long as Hamas exists as an armed group in Gaza, there will not be a peace – there will not be a peaceful future, because it’s going to happen again. And that can’t – this can never happen again. ”
This comes as Israel weighs a full-scale occupation of the Gaza Strip. The security cabinet is expected to vote on the matter on Thursday.
