Rubio, in Israel, Meets Netanyahu as Trump Grows Impatient

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in Jerusalem on Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for sensitive talks on the war in Gaza and growing international support for a Palestinian state.

While Mr. Netanyahu welcomed Mr. Rubio on Sunday as an “extraordinary friend” of Israel and celebrated the strength of the U.S.-Israel alliance, tensions between the Israeli leader and President Trump have been rising.

Mr. Trump is impatient for an end to the war in Gaza — he has promised for months to broker a cease-fire that would stop the fighting and free hostages still held by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

But Mr. Trump’s diplomacy has come up short, and Israel is now preparing a major military offensive in Gaza City which is likely to prolong the fighting for months.

There were growing signs that a ground invasion of Gaza City could begin soon after Mr. Rubio departs the country. On Sunday, the Israeli military intensified airstrikes on the city and attacked four more high-rise buildings that it said were being used by Hamas.

Mr. Trump has also publicly rebuked Mr. Netanyahu for launching an airstrike last week against Hamas leaders in Qatar, a U.S. ally in the Gulf and a mediator in talks to end the Gaza war. The U.S. president said the strike would make it harder to reach a peace deal.

Before leaving Washington on Saturday, Mr. Rubio told reporters he intended to press Mr. Netanyahu on the strike’s ramifications for peace negotiations, which have dragged on fruitlessly since a brief pause in the fighting in the spring that allowed a partial hostage release.

Mr. Rubio, who also serves as national security adviser, would not say whether Mr. Trump supported the new offensive into densely populated Gaza City, where Israel says Hamas is regrouping. Israel has issued evacuation orders for the city and more than 300,000 Palestinian have fled, according to the Israeli military.

Mr. Rubio, referring to the war, made clear that “the president wants this to be finished with” the release of hostages and the defeat or surrender of Hamas. Israel believes about 20 hostages are still alive.

Hamas has shown no willingness to lay down its arms. And Mr. Netanyahu, whom critics accuse of prolonging the war to extend his political career, shows no signs of compromising his demands for a total victory.

According to the State Department, Mr. Rubio also planned to discuss growing support for the recognition of a Palestinian state. Several countries, including France and Canada, said in July that they would recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month.

On Sunday, after the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a nonbinding resolution supporting such a state, right-wing ministers in Israel called for annexation of the West Bank in response.

The Trump administration shares Israel’s strong opposition to recognition of a Palestinian state, even though it would be mainly symbolic. The United States and Israel say a Palestinian state can be created only at the end of a peace process that affords Israel strict security guarantees.

An annexation of the West Bank could create a political crisis for Arab states that Israel has moved closer to in recent years. It could also jeopardize the 2020 Abraham Accords, a set of U.S.-brokered agreements that normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab states.

The accords, which were signed five years ago, are among Mr. Trump’s proudest first-term achievements. But officials in the United Arab Emirates have suggested that an Israeli annexation of the West Bank might force them to quit the agreements.

And such a move by Israel is likely to crush Mr. Trump’s hopes of expanding the accords to include regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia.