Rubio is in Israel in wake of Qatar attack as Israeli strikes intensify
in northern Gaza
[September 15, 2025]
By MATTHEW LEE and SAMY MAGDY
JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Israel on
Sunday as its military intensified attacks on northern Gaza, flattening
multiple high-rise building and killing at least 13 Palestinians.
Rubio said before the trip that he would seek answers from Israeli
officials about their view of a path forward in Gaza, following Israel’s
attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar last week that upended efforts to
broker an end to the conflict.
His two-day visit also represents a show of support for the increasingly
isolated Israel as the United Nations holds what is expected to be a
contentious debate next week on commitment to the creation of a
Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly
opposes the recognition of a Palestinian state.
Qatar fallout
Rubio's visit proceeded despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s anger at
Netanyahu over the Israeli strike in Doha, which he said the United
States wasn't notified of beforehand.
On Sunday, Netanyahu, Rubio and their wives, along with U.S. Ambassador
to Israel Mike Huckabee and his wife, toured the Western Wall and the
excavated tunnels near it.
“I think his (Rubio’s) visit here is a testament to the durability, the
strength of the Israeli-American alliance. It’s as strong and as durable
as the stones of the Western Wall we just touched," Netanyahu said.
On Friday, Rubio and Trump met with Qatar’s prime minister about the
fallout from the Israeli operation. The back-to-back meetings with
Israel and Qatar illustrate how the Trump administration is trying to
balance relations between key Middle East allies despite widespread
international condemnation of the attack.
The Doha attack, which killed at least six people, also appears to have
ended attempts to secure an Israel-Hamas ceasefire and the release of
hostages before the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session, at which the
war in Gaza is expected to be a primary focus.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s prime minister denounced Israel as foreign ministers
from Arab and Muslim nations met Sunday to discuss a possible unified
response. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as
foreign minister, said Qatar remained committed to working with Egypt
and the U.S. to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, but that
Israel's strike represented “an attack on the principle of mediation
itself.”
Deadly airstrikes mount
On Sunday, at least 13 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in
Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.
One strike on a tent in the city of Deir al-Balah killed at least six
members of the same family. Two parents, their three children and the
children’s aunt were killed, according to Al-Aqsa Hospital. The family
was from the northern town of Beit Hanoun, and arrived in Deir al-Balah
last week after fleeing a Gaza City shelter.
The Israeli military didn't immediately comment.
Associated Press video showed what appeared to be thousands of people
fleeing Gaza City on the seaside road to the south with their belongings
packed on vehicles, even as smoke rose from an airstrike some distance
away. Israel has been warning residents to evacuate Gaza City as it
expands its operation.
“We have begun to wish for death, death, rather than this life we live
today,” said Ashraf Elwan, a young man displaced from Gaza City. “Our
young men have had their limbs amputated, our women have become widows,
our children have become orphans, our lives have become hell.”
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Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza by foot and in vehicles,
carrying their belongings along the coastal road toward southern
Gaza, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The Israeli military destroyed three high-rise buildings Sunday
after warning residents to evacuate. One building, part of the
Islamic University in Gaza City, was struck twice and flattened. Al-Shifa
hospital reported casualties, but couldn't confirm how many, saying
some bodies remain trapped inside.
Before the strikes, residents scrambled to pull out belongings,
tossing mattresses from balconies and wheeling away items, including
suitcases.
The military said Hamas had positioned observation points on the
buildings to gather intelligence about troop movements and that
militants were poised to strike Israeli troops, though it offered no
evidence to support those claims.
“This is part of the genocidal measures the (Israeli) occupation is
carrying out in Gaza City,” said Abed Ismail, a Gaza City resident.
“They want to turn the whole city into rubble, and force the
transfer and another Nakba.”
The word Nakba is Arabic for catastrophe and refers to when around
700,000 Palestinians were expelled by Israeli forces or fled their
homes in what is now Israel, before and during the 1948 war that
surrounded its creation.
Israeli strongly denies accusations of genocide in Gaza.
Starvation in Gaza
Separately, two Palestinian adults died of causes related to
malnutrition and starvation in the Gaza Strip over the last 24
hours, the territory’s Health Ministry reported Sunday.
That has brought the death toll from malnutrition-related causes to
277 since late June, when the ministry started to count adult
fatalities, while another 145 children died of malnutrition-related
causes since the start of the war in October 2023, the ministry
said.
The Israeli defense body overseeing humanitarian aid in Gaza said
that more than 1,200 trucks carrying aid, primarily food, entered
Gaza over the past week. Aid workers say the aid that reaches Gaza
is insufficient for the territory's enormous needs. Much of it is
also looted before it can reach Palestinians in desperate need.
International teams also finished repair work on a water line from
Israel to Gaza, one of three water lines from Israel to Gaza,
increasing the daily amount of water coming into Gaza from Israel to
14,000 cubic meters (3.7 million gallons), Israel said.
Since Israel launched its offensive, Gaza’s water access has been
progressively limited. Parents and children often chase down water
trucks that come every two or three days, filling bottles, canisters
and buckets and then hauling them home.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern
Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly
civilians, and abducting 251. There are still 48 hostages remaining
in Gaza, of whom Israel believes that 20 are still alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,871
Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn't say
how many were civilians or combatants.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Eric
Tucker in Washington, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, contributed to this report.
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