Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned that the Israeli parliament’s moves toward annexing the already occupied West Bank could imperil President Donald Trump‘s plan to end the conflict in Gaza.
Rubio was speaking before heading to Israel to help oversee efforts to maintain the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas, and push forward peace talks on the next stages of the deal. He’s the latest senior U.S. official to do so after a flare-up in violence raised fears the truce could collapse.
“That’s a vote in the Knesset, but obviously I think the president’s made clear that’s not something we’d be supportive of right now,” Rubio said, speaking with reporters late Wednesday on the tarmac.
His comments came after a bill seeking to apply Israeli law to the West Bank, a move seen as amounting to annexation of the land that Palestinians view as part of a future state, gained preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament earlier Wednesday.
“They’re a democracy, they’re going to have their votes. People are gonna take these positions,” Rubio said. But “at this time,” he said “we think it might be counterproductive.”
The vote comes weeks after Trump said he would not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It was the first of four needed to pass the law, according to Reuters, which reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party did not support the legislation.
Rubio was the latest U.S. official to make his way to Israel in recent days, following on the heels of Vice President JD Vance, Trump’s Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
On Wednesday, Vance sought to emphasize that U.S. officials were not flocking to Israel in a bid to babysit the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, stressing that Israel was a partner, not a “vassal state” as questions grew around the next steps in Trump’s peace plan.
Both Vance and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanged warm words at a joint news conference Wednesday as they sought to project confidence over the future of Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas, with discussions around a future international stabilization force in Gaza becoming a focal point of discussions this week.
“I never said it was easy, but what I am is optimistic that the ceasefire is going to hold and that we can actually build a better future in the entire Middle East,” Vance said.
His comments came after flashes of violence in Gaza in recent days threatened to unravel the truce deal, with both Israel and Hamas trading accusations that the other side had violated the fragile ceasefire.
The two sides have also clashed over delays in the return of hostage bodies held by Hamas and over ongoing barriers to aid access in the enclave.
The International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ top legal body, said in an advisory opinion Wednesday that Israel is required to facilitate UN. aid efforts in Gaza. The case followed Israel’s decision last year to effectively ban UNRWA, the U.N. relief agency supporting Palestinian refugees.
Israel has faced growing backlash on the international stage in recent months over not only its war in Gaza, but also a rise in settler violence and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank over the past two years.
Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war and has defended the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, but much of the international community views them as illegal.
The expansion of settlements has also been viewed as directly imperiling the Palestinian cause and as a major impediment to resolving the decadeslong conflict in the region, with Palestinians viewing all three territories as part of a future state.
A number of global powers, including France and Britain, formally recognized a Palestinian state last month.
“This is a complex part of the world,” Rubio said Wednesday. “I think every day is gonna bring opportunities and it’s also going to bring some challenges, okay? We’re dealing with decades and decades of this stuff.”
Despite warning of the impact that the Israeli Knesset’s moves toward annexation could have on peace efforts in the region, Rubio still projected optimism over the future of the current ceasefire deal.
“There’s more work to be done and we know that,” he said on Wednesday.
“This is a historic peace deal that President Trump delivered on and now we have to make sure that it continues and that we continue to build upon it.”