Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed over the weekend that President Donald Trump\u2019s framework for peace in Gaza along with the release of the remaining Israeli hostages being held by Hamas had been accepted by the terrorist group.<\/p>\n
Rubio made his comments during a Sunday interview with \u201cFox News Sunday\u201d guest host Gillian Turner.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Monday, President Trump gave Hamas a deadline of 6pm tonight to accept all 20 points of his proposed plan. Then Friday, Hamas came forward and said well, we accept one. Are you concerned at all that this is a play for more time? A stalling tactic?\u201d Turner asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s an accurate, a fairly inaccurate description of what\u2019s happened here. Two, the way to think about this is two-fold. Number one, is Hamas has accepted the entire construct of President Trump\u2019s proposal for releasing the hostages. That\u2019s number one, ok. Forty-eight, twenty that are alive, twenty-eight that are deceased,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is talks ongoing which will hopefully be finalized very quickly on the logistics of that. You know, who\u2019s going to go in, what time are they gonna be released, how\u2019s all that going to work,\u201d Rubio continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second part of this, and it\u2019s gonna be a much tougher part of it is, what happens after that. Whose gonna run Gaza moving forward? It can\u2019t be Hamas, it can\u2019t be a terrorist organization,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Rubio also said that expelling terrorists from Gaza is part of a long-term plan to bring stability to the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, that is what permanent peace is going to be dependent upon, and that is that Gaza is no longer controlled by a terrorist organization like Hamas,\u201d he said. \u201cThe top priority first and foremost is all forty-eight hostages being released as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems like a bitter pill for the Israelis to swallow,\u201d Turner responded, noting the release of terrorists in exchange for the return of Israeli hostages.<\/p>\n
Secretary Rubio said that efforts to secure the release of hostages often result in difficult or uneven agreements, which in some cases have included the release of captured terrorists by the hostages\u2019 home countries.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs unfair, as unjust and as unbalanced as a deal like that may be, that is how important life is to them,\u201d Rubio explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it all happened because President Trump put that on the table and built this international coalition, including Arab and Islamic countries. Without him putting that together, we wouldn\u2019t even be having this conversation right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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