‘Historic time’: Rubio to meet Netanyahu in Israel this week, marking third visit by a senior US official

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Israel on Thursday, an Israeli government spokeswoman said on Wednesday (Oct 22). The visit will mark the third by a senior Washington official this week. Vice President JD Vance and special envoy Steve Witkoff are already in the country to promote the plan to end the war in Gaza. Shosh Bedrosian told reporters that Rubio would also meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.

“This is the secretary of state third trip to Israel since mid-September which further shows the hand-in-hand relationship that Israel and the United States have as we mark this historic time,” Bedrosian said.

Earlier on Wednesday, US Vice President JD Vance met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his second day of a trip to Israel. During a press conference in Jerusalem, Vance warned of the tough task ahead in disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza as part of the ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump.

“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” he said.

Netanyahu added that ideas for “the day after” had been discussed. “We’re just creating an unbelievable day after with a completely new vision of how to have the civil government, how to have the security there, who could provide that security there,” he said.

“It’s not going to be easy, but I think it’s possible... we're really creating a peace plan and an infrastructure here where nothing existed even a week and a day ago,” he said. “That’s going to require a lot of work. It requires a lot of ingenuity.”

Vance added that the Gaza peace deal could also pave the way for broader alliances for Israel in the Middle East.

“I think this Gaza deal is a critical piece of unlocking the Abraham Accords,” he said, referring to the series of agreements between Israel and several Arab nations in 2020. “But what it could allow is an alliance structure in the Middle East that perseveres, that endures, and that allows the good people in this region, the world, to step up and take ownership of their own backyard.”