AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in the Middle East. Today it's Israel and a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - on the table, plans for a postwar Gaza. The visit comes less than two weeks after Netanyahu met with President Trump in the White House. NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi is in Tel Aviv and joins us now. Welcome back.
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Thank you.
RASCOE: This is the first visit for Rubio to the region in his new role. What do we know about his conversations with Netanyahu?
AL-SHALCHI: Well, at least at the press conference afterwards, Netanyahu gave Rubio a big hug, welcomed him to Jerusalem and then really gushed about Israel's relationship with the U.S.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: President Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House. And the visit in Washington reflected that in every way. And your visit here reflects it in everywhere.
AL-SHALCHI: We know that the main thing they talked about was what a postwar Gaza should look like. I mean, they didn't disclose much of what they said today. But President Donald Trump's proposal is to displace Palestinians from Gaza, move them to other countries - mainly, you know, Jordan and Egypt - and then start rebuilding the strip under U.S. ownership.
Now, that plan really shocked the Arab world. They rejected it. But then Rubio is saying, look, this is the proposal Trump is making right now. And he's telling Arab countries, if you have better ideas, we'll hear them. So Rubio's next stops on this trip are to Saudi Arabia and then onto the United Arab Emirates. That's where Arab leaders are supposed to hash out any other options to Trump's plan. By the way, it's also kind of important to note that it wasn't immediately clear if Rubio was going to meet with any Palestinian officials at all on this visit.
RASCOE: Anything else was brought up during this meeting?
AL-SHALCHI: Yeah, so Rubio also said that the U.S. was keeping an eye on the leaders of Lebanon and Syria to disarm militants in their countries. And then he turned to Iran.
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MARCO RUBIO: It is the single greatest source of instability in the region, behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilizing activity.
AL-SHALCHI: I mean, Rubio also called on the region's allies to combine their forces, to make sure Israel stays safe. And then, you know, just as Rubio arrived here, a shipment of heavy bombs from the U.S. that were delayed by former President Biden also arrived in Israel.
RASCOE: And this is all happening during a shaky ceasefire with Hamas that almost collapsed last week, right?
AL-SHALCHI: Yeah, that's right. So yesterday, three more Israeli hostages - all civilian men, one with dual American-Israeli citizenship - were released. And that was in exchange for over 360 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. This was the sixth exchange, which, like you said, almost didn't happen. Hamas said it was going to delay the release because of alleged violations by Israel. Israel denied those violations. And the first phase actually expires at the beginning of March.
An Israeli official, who's familiar with the talks but he couldn't speak publicly about them, told NPR that neither side has actually sat down to talk about what Phase 2 would look like, and those negotiations were supposed to start a week ago. The official also said that Israel is planning to press for more hostages to be released this week. There are 73 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza right now and Israel believes almost half are dead already.
RASCOE: That's NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Tel Aviv. Thank you so much.
AL-SHALCHI: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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