US says Hamas cannot be involved in governing Gaza in future

Marco Rubio says UN agency for Palestinian cannot play future role in Gaza

TEL AVIV:  US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that Hamas “cannot be involved in governing Gaza in the future”.

Speaking during a press conference while on a visit to Israel, Rubio also said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) “cannot play a role in Gaza”, describing it as a “subsidiary of Hamas”.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio speaks to the media after visiting the civil-military coordination centre in southern Israel on Friday.

Rubio added that Israel must be “comfortable” with members of an international Gaza force as he spoke from the building housing the US-Israel ceasefire coordination centre in Kiryat Gat.

It has just gone 4.30pm in Gaza and Israel. This blog will be closing shortly but you can access all the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.

Here is a summary of Friday’s main developments:

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said that Hamas “cannot be involved in governing Gaza in the future”. Speaking during a press conference while on a visit to Israel, Rubio also said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) “cannot play a role in Gaza”, describing it as a “subsidiary of Hamas”.

Rubio said on Friday that Israel had to be at ease with the nations contributing to a future international security force in Gaza, after reports that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed Turkish involvement. “We haven’t formed that force yet, so there’s still work going on,” Rubio told reporters at a military coordination centre in southwestern Israel.

Rubio also added that more countries are ready to normalise relations with Israel but the decision would await a broader regional agreement. The US secretary of state said that a sustained end to the war would encourage more countries to join the Abraham accords, under which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalised ties with Israel in 2020.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the US and others must do more to push Israel to stop violating the Gaza ceasefire agreement, including the possible use of sanctions or halting arms sales. According to an official readout of his remarks to reporters on board a return flight from Oman, Erdoğan said Hamas was abiding by the agreement. In comments made before Rubio’s press conference, Erdoğan said that Turkey remains ready to support the planned Gaza taskforce in any way needed.

Netanyahu has ordered a halt to the advancement of parliamentary bills linked to the annexation of the West Bank after the US vice-president, JD Vance, described a vote on two bills in the Knesset as an “insult”. The bills applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, which would be tantamount to the annexation of land Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday, barely a week after Donald Trump pushed through a deal aimed at ending a two-year Israeli offensive in Gaza.