In the middle of the war escalation of IsraelPrime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu said Sunday that the relationship between his country and the United States “has never been so strong.”
Their statements were made after visiting the regret wall and its tunnels in Jerusalem, together with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visiting the Hebrew nation in times of renewed tension in the Middle East after the recent Israeli attack to members of the negotiating team of the Palestinian group Hamás in Qatar.
The alliance between Washington and Tel Aviv, which Netanyahu said “thank you deeply,” amounts to a total amount of 38 billion dollars under a memorandum of understanding signed in 2016 and in force until 2028.
Of this figure, 33 billion are intended for the purchase of military weapons, and 5 billion are allocated to antimile defense programs such as Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling.
During his visit to the underground tunnels of the Las Lasa wall, Netanyahu and Rubio were accompanied by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. On the tour, the Israeli ruler described the alliance as one of “the greatest strength we have ever had”, and thanked the firm American support to his country under the presidency of Donald Trump.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamín Netanyahu, says after visiting together with the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the regretty wall that the relationship between the two countries “has never been so strong.”https://t.co/0e2GJ0ZWXC pic.twitter.com/75vldejzwf
– Efe News (@Efenoticias) SEPTEMBER 14, 2025
USA disapproves attack against Qatar, but …
Before taking the plane to Tel Aviv, Rubio told the press that the United States did not approve Israel’s bombings against Hamas’s negotiating leadership in Qatar, but added that the attack will not change the status of Washington’s ally of which Israel enjoys.
Tuesday’s air attacks – -the first of Israel against Qatar, an ally of the United States and key mediator in the conflict with Palestine -have shocked the region and have undergone a huge pressure of diplomatic efforts to achieve a truce in Gaza. Qatar himself said he reserves the right to respond to “aggression.”
“What happened, obviously, did not like the President (Donald Trump) did not like it,” Rubio told the press and then clarified that, however, what happened “will not change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis.”
However, the offensive was condemned by Qatar as “state terrorism” and caused the call for an urgent Arab-Islamic summit in Doha, where the countries of the region will discuss this Sunday and Monday future steps in front of the crisis and the new front open by Israel.
Gaza under siege: dead and destruction
Meanwhile, in Gaza the Israeli offensive intensifies. During this Saturday, at least 74 Palestinians died in air attacks, many of them civilians, including women, children and the elderly.
The Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of much of the city of Gaza, home of one million people, adducing the presence of Hamas infrastructure in residential buildings.
The demolition of the Burj An-Nour building, an emblematic tower in Gaza, symbolizes the destructive Israeli campaign, which has already devastated more than 30 residential buildings in the city, leaving more than 50 thousand Palestinians homeless.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has warned about the growing humanitarian crisis, with malnutrition deaths that reach 422 people, including 145 children.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8po3LAN87g
The context of Rubio’s visit to Israel
The Secretary of State for Israel is executed just a week before France leads a United Nations Summit on September 22, in which several Western countries plan to recognize a Palestinian state focused on the West Bank.
The French government, exasperated by the massive Israeli offensive in Gaza, has rejected American and Israeli criticisms and states that there must be a new path to the Palestinians.
In the last two years, Israel’s attacks in the Strip have killed more than 64 thousand Palestinians, mostly civil, according to data from the Gazati authorities that the UN considers reliable.
At the same time, in Israel the internal pressure increases due to the situation of the hostages still retained in Gaza by Hamas, after its kidnapping in the attack on Israeli territory in October 2023.
Hundreds of relatives accuse Netanyahu of “sabotage” in the release of the captives and indicate the attack on Qatar as an act that makes it difficult to reach a peace agreement.
The Hostage and Disappeared Families Forum issued a statement in which the contradiction between Tel Aviv’s military actions and diplomatic efforts to free their loved ones.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas two years ago, 48 are still in Gaza, including the bodies of 27 people, according to the Israeli armed forces.
