International support for a two-state solution, which would create an independent Palestinian state, unnecessarily obstructs ceasefire talks and “encourages and rewards” terrorism, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday.
“Think about it if you’re Hamas,” Rubio said in a Fox interview. “You’re still holding 20 innocent people as hostages. You’re holding the bodies of over 50 of the people you massacred, raped, and killed during this – on October 7th of 2023.”
“You’re sitting there hiding in some tunnel somewhere as cowards, and then you’re reading or hearing in the press that all of these countries are rallying to your side – because this is the Hamas side. At the end of the day, the Hamas side is the Palestinian statehood side. So you are creating this reward,” he continued.
None of the counties that have recently pledged support for a Palestinian sate — the U.K., France, and Canada — have the ability to create such a state. Some countries have attached their support for the proposal to a conditional timeline: The U.K., for example, declared that if Israel and Hamas do not agree to a ceasefire by September, the country will recognize a Palestinian state.
“So if I’m Hamas, I say, you know what, let’s not allow there to be a ceasefire,” Rubio said. “If Hamas refuses to agree to a ceasefire, it guarantees a Palestinian state will be recognized by all these countries in September. So they’re not going to agree to a ceasefire.”
Although Israel has made a number of concessions to further a ceasefire deal, Hamas has flat-out rejected the deal, Rubio added. In fact, Hamas rejected the ceasefire deal “on the same day that [President Emmanuel] Macron from France made his announcement.”
“Because at the end of the day Hamas is sitting there saying: ‘we’re winning the PR war,'” Rubio said. “‘We’ve got all these countries lining up on our side of this argument. We’ve got leverage now. We shouldn’t agree to anything. We should keep this thing going.'”
“They don’t care about how many people die in Gaza.”
Rubio’s comments come as President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy travels to Israel. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Israel ambassador Mike Huckabee will go to the Gaza Strip on Friday to “inspect the current distribution sites and secure a plan to deliver more food and meet with local Gazans to hear firsthand about this dire situation on the ground,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced in a Thursday press briefing.
As European countries raise alarm over the humanitarian aid situation in Gaza, the U.S. has done more to fund aid efforts on the ground than any other country, Trump has said.
“The United States is not insensitive, and we have done a lot. We’ve done more than, frankly, anybody else in terms of providing funding necessary for humanitarian relief in Gaza,” Rubio said. “And the cameras capture the images of the human suffering there. You know what the cameras don’t capture? The suffering of 20 people living in tunnels right now taken hostage by Hamas for almost – for a long time. No one’s covering that.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihadists released a video of Rom Braslavski, an Israeli taken hostage on October 7 from the Nova music festival, on Thursday. Terrorists recorded the video days earlier and Braslavski’s whereabouts in the Gaza Strip are now unknown, the group said.
“People are speaking a lot about what is happening in Gaza, about the hunger, and I ask all those who are speaking about hunger: Did you see our Rom? He doesn’t receive food, and he doesn’t receive medicine. He is simply forgotten there,” a statement issued by Braslavski’s family read.
“They managed to break Rom. Even the most resilient person has their breaking point.”
Forty-nine hostages kidnapped on October 7 remain in Gaza. Only 20 are believed to be alive.