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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the latest top US official to visit Israel, said Friday that “there is no plan B” for Gaza, only US President Donald Trump’s broad peace plan, and that annexation of the West Bank by Israel would be “a threat to the peace process.”

Rubio said Israel has met its commitments under the first phase of 20-point Trump plan, which began with the ceasefire on October 10, and that Israel would have to be “comfortable” with the makeup of the international force that will enter Gaza in the second phase, which is still being hashed out.

Hamas will have to release the remains of deceased hostages and disarm, he said, adding that UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, will not be permitted to help deliver aid to Gaza because it is a “subsidiary” of the terror group.

A senior Saudi source said there was no intention to move toward normalization with the current Israeli government, following incendiary remarks by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday declared, “Israel is not going to do anything with the West Bank,” as officials from his administration leveled harsh criticism against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government after lawmakers advanced legislation to annex parts of the West Bank while Vice President JD Vance was visiting the country.

“Don’t worry about the West Bank,” Trump told reporters at the White House, in his first comments on the matter since the Knesset voted on the two bills Wednesday. “Don’t worry about it,” he repeated. “Israel’s doing very well. They’re not going to do anything with it.”

The measures were passed despite opposition from Netanyahu, in light of Trump’s vow last month that he would not allow Israel to make the controversial move.

Vance says that it is the policy of the Trump Administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Thursday night.

“Secretary Rubio, Marco, welcome again to Jerusalem,” Netanyahu told Washington’s top diplomat in brief remarks following their meeting.

“We’ve had incredible visits, first by President Trump in the Knesset, something that will be etched in our history. We had the vice president yesterday, we have you today—this is a circle of trust and partnership,” according to the premier.

(photos: Time & Flash90)

Israel will lose all support from the United States if it decides to annex the West Bank, US President Donald Trump told Time Magazine in an interview published Thursday afternoon. 

"Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened," he said. "It won't happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries."

Trump highlighted Arab support of the ceasefire deal, but explained that "if we didn't take [Iran] out, number one, we wouldn't have signed [the ceasefire deal], because there would have been many Arab countries that just could not have done that."

[Side note: It is not fully clear from the article on which date Trump gave the interview.]

US Vice President JD Vance stressed that the US does not want to control Israel during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.

"Israel is not an American protectorate," Netanyahu stated, adding that the country would “have the final say regarding her security." 

Vance's meeting with Netanyahu came as part of the US VP's schedule in Israel, and was centered around the “challenge of holding the ceasefire and rebuilding Gaza.”

Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday passed in preliminary reading two opposition bills to extend legal sovereignty to Judea and Samaria.

One bill, by Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman, seeks to annex Ma’ale Adumim, a large city in the Judean Desert, while a second, by Noam Party head Avi Maoz, concerns all of Judea and Samaria.

The legislation will now be forwarded to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for consideration ahead of three additional votes.

(photo: AP)

The Trump administration is reportedly planning for a visit to the United States by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next month, a potential first state visit by a foreign leader during Trump’s second term, according to sources familiar with the arrangements told AP News.

Preparations are underway for a series of agreements that could be signed or witnessed by President Trump and the crown prince during the trip, officials said.

The visit is tentatively scheduled for November 17-19, though the timing and format of the trip remain subject to change.

(photo: Flash90)

Tzachi Hanegbi's tenure as National Security Council head ended after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed him he would be appointing a new council head, Hanegbi said in a statement on Tuesday.

Netanyahu announced that he would appoint Deputy Head of the National Security Council, Gil Reich, to Acting Head of the National Security Council.

"I thanked the prime minister for the privilege of being a partner in shaping Israel’s foreign and security policy during challenging years, for the opportunity to express an independent position in sensitive discussions, and for the professional discourse we conducted even during times of disagreement," Hanegbi stated.

(photo: Nathan Howard-Pool, Getty Images)

U.S. Vice President JD Vance is “very optimistic” that the White House-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terror organization will hold, the former Ohio senator said during a press conference in Israel on Tuesday.

“What we’ve seen in the past week gives me great optimism that the ceasefire is going to hold,” Vance said, on the day after a truce resumed in Gaza following Hamas’s attacks on Israeli troops and the Jewish state’s response.

The vice president, who said as recently as a few days ago that he wasn’t sure if he was going to visit Israel, said that his visit had nothing to do with events of the past 24 hours and had been planned for months.

He said that he “wanted to check in on things” and “see how things were going and put some eyes on it.”

US President Donald Trump said that Hamas's violation of the "ceasefire in Gaza would be taken care of quickly" in comments to the press on Monday.

"They’re going to be nice, and if they’re not... we're going to eradicate them if we have to," he said ahead of meetings with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "They'll be eradicated — and they know that."

He added that at this time, he has not told Israel to resume strikes in Gaza and that the US was "taking lots of steps to maintain ceasefire."

Israel on Sunday night reaffirmed its commitment to the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, which had been threatened after a series of Hamas attacks on IDF soldiers sparked military retaliation.

“In accordance with the directive of the political echelon, and following a series of significant strikes in response to Hamas’s violations, the [Israel Defense Forces] has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire,” said the army.

“The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation,” the statement added.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday evening that the incident would be handled “toughly but properly” and that the truce in the Strip remained in effect.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant speech Monday at the opening of the Knesset’s winter session, vowing to continue the war against Hamas while defending the ceasefire agreement linked to the release of hostages.

Netanyahu credited Israel’s military pressure for forcing Hamas to accept the current deal, claiming that the Israel Defense Forces’ advance “into the heart of Gaza City, the last stronghold of Hamas,” brought the group to the negotiating table.

“If I had listened to those who called to stop the war,” he said, “Israel would have suffered a crushing defeat, and the entire country would have gone up in nuclear smoke.”

Hours after announcing an attack on soldiers in southern Gaza that led to intense airstrikes in the Strip, the IDF says that two soldiers were killed and three were wounded in the attack by Palestinian terror operatives in Rafah this morning.

The slain soldiers are named as Maj. Yaniv Kula, 26, and Staff Sgt. Itay Yavetz, 21.

Both served in the Nahal Brigade’s 932nd Battalion and are from the central city of Modiin.

The US State Department issued a rare weekend statement Saturday, saying it had informed fellow mediating countries Qatar, Turkey and Egypt of a “credible reports indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas against the people of Gaza.”

“This planned attack against Palestinian civilians would constitute a direct and grave violation of the ceasefire agreement and undermine the significant progress achieved through mediation efforts,” the State Department said.

It didn’t elaborate on the nature of the Hamas attack, but it came after over a week in which Hamas fighters reportedly executed dozens of members of rival clans along with other Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel.

A multinational team meant to help secure the Gaza Strip following the end of Israel’s war with Hamas will likely be headed up by Egypt, according to a report Saturday, which came as the US continued its efforts to shore up support for the mission.

The International Stabilization Force (ISF) is part of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, and is intended to secure the Strip during a transitional postwar period, following Israel’s withdrawal and the disarmament of the Hamas terror group.

According to a report published by The Guardian on Saturday, the US and European powers are preparing a UN Security Council motion that would allow the stabilization force to act under a UN mandate without being considered a UN peacekeeping force — as Trump’s plan for the ISF does not envision it being a UN-led operation.

A stream of senior US officials is on its way to Israel in a bid to prevent the collapse of the next phase of President Donald Trump's Gaza plan. American envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to arrive Sunday, attempting to mediate over the issue of the deceased hostages. US Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to arrive Tuesday for his first visit to Israel in office.

The White House is considering sending US Vice President JD Vance to Israel on Monday to hold meetings with top Israeli officials on implementing the next phases of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, a US official told The Times of Israel on Saturday.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and fellow adviser to US President Donald Trump Jared Kushner were initially slated to head the American delegation, the official said, adding that they were still slated to join Vance at some point on his trip.

According to Channel 12 news, Vance will also discuss progress toward completing the initial phase of the ceasefire deal, which came into effect on Friday, October 10.