JERUSALEM, Feb 16, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met 
with Israel's prime minister in Jerusalem on Sunday for talks on the Gaza 
ceasefire, launching a Middle East tour a day after the latest hostage-
prisoner exchange.

On his first visit to the region as Washington's top diplomat, Rubio is 
expected to push US President Donald Trump's widely condemned proposal to 
take control of Gaza and relocate its more than two million residents.

The scheme that Trump outlined earlier this month, while Israeli Prime 
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington, lacked details. Trump said 
Palestinians had "lived a miserable existence" in Gaza and suggested the 
coastal territory could become the "Riviera of the Middle East", following 
redevelopment after more than 15 months of war.

Netanyahu welcomed the idea but foreign leaders have largely rejected it.

Rubio arrived hours after Hamas freed three Israeli hostages in Gaza in 
exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners -- the sixth swap under a fragile 
ceasefire which the United States helped mediate along with Qatar and Egypt.

"At any moment the fighting could resume. We hope that the calm will continue 
and that Egypt will pressure Israel to prevent them from restarting the war 
and displacing people," said Nasser al-Astal, 62, a retired teacher in 
southern Gaza's Khan Yunis.

Washington, Israel's top ally and weapons supplier, has said it is open to 
alternative proposals from Arab governments but insists that, for now, "the 
only plan is Trump's".

In January, then-US secretary of state Antony Blinken outlined a roadmap for 
post-war Gaza, warning it required Israel to accept a path to a Palestinian 
state -- something Netanyahu's government opposes.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the establishment of a 
Palestinian state is "the only guarantee" of lasting Middle East peace.

Regional states including Saudi Arabia have repeatedly called for a 
Palestinian state, existing alongside Israel.

Rubio is due to also visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Overnight, Israel said it received a shipment of US-made bombs, after the 
previous Biden administration blocked a shipment of heavy 2,000-pound 
ordnance.

- Brink of collapse -

Hamas and Israel are implementing the first, 42-day phase of the ceasefire 
that began on January 19 but nearly collapsed last week.

Israel had warned Hamas it must free three living hostages by the weekend or 
face renewed fighting.

The freed hostages -- Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, Israeli-Russian 
Sasha Trupanov, 29, and Israeli-Argentine Yair Horn, 46 -- returned to 
emotional family reunions. 

Flanked by armed and masked Hamas fighters on a stage, they had to undergo a 
last-minute ordeal of speaking in front of the crowds.

Israel freed 369 Palestinian prisoners, mostly Gazans detained during the 
war, but also some serving life sentences for attacks on Israelis.

Footage aired by Israeli media showed Palestinian prisoners in sweatshirts 
bearing a Star of David and the slogan: "We will not forget and we will not 
forgive."

They tore them off upon reaching Gaza and burned them in a bonfire at the 
reception point in Khan Yunis.

Since the truce began last month, 19 Israeli hostages have been released in 
exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Out of 251 people seized in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that 
sparked the war, 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says 
are dead.

- Heightened tensions -

Negotiations on a second phase of the truce, aimed at securing a more lasting 
end to the war, could begin this week in Doha, a Hamas official and another 
source familiar with the talks have said.

On Saturday, a former Israeli negotiator said his country missed two chances 
last year to reach a truce and hasten hostage releases, which Netanyahu's 
office denied.

Trump has warned of repercussions for neighbouring Egypt and Jordan unless 
they accept displaced Gazans under his plan.

Diplomats say Egypt is leading efforts to propose an alternative focused on 
training a new security force and appointing local Palestinian leaders.

Rubio said he believed Arab states were "working in good faith", but insisted 
Hamas must have no future role.

The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, 
mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,264 people in Gaza, the 
majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in 
the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

On Sunday, Hamas said an Israeli air strike killed three police officers near 
south Gaza's Rafah. Israel said it struck "several armed individuals" in 
south Gaza.

It is at least the second Israeli air strike in Gaza since the ceasefire 
began.