500 Days of War: Netanyahu, Rubio Agree Hamas Must be 'Eradicated,' Iran Regime Can't Get Nukes

JERUSALEM, Israel – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. Their meeting follows a heart-wrenching Saturday when the Hamas terror group released three more hostages to their families. Monday also marks 500 days since the October 7th, 2023, attacks.

After their meeting, Rubio and Netanyahu agreed that Hamas must be destroyed.

"Hamas cannot continue as a military or government force," Rubio stated. "And frankly, as long as it stands as a force that can govern or as a force that can administer, or as a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible. They must be eliminated. It must be eradicated."

Netanyahu once again backed President Donald Trump's plan to help all Gazans leave their war-torn, devastated region while others rebuild it under U.S. control. He believes many Palestinians want to leave but Hamas won't let them.

"Everybody says this is the largest open-air prison in the world. Not because of us," Netanyahu declared. "We tried to get the population to leave – to get them out of harm's way. And Hamas – with rifles, with gunfire – try to prevent them from leaving."

Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff recently visited Gaza and saw why people can't reasonably live in much of it now.

"It's completely devastated," Witkoff observed. "And that begs the question: should people be allowed in there in those dangerous conditions?  Thank God we've had no incidents. But, there's 30,000 unexploded shells throughout Gaza, and the buildings are all down. It's utter destruction."

Netanyahu also indicated this weekend he and the Trump administration see eye-to-eye on the threat from Iran.

"Israel and America stand shoulder to shoulder in countering the threat of Iran," he claimed. "We agree that the ayatollahs must not have nuclear weapons."

"Them getting a bomb is devastating to the region," Witkoff said. "It'll force every other country in that region to get a bomb, too. We'll have a nuclear arms race, and that simply can't happen."

Rubio concurred, saying, "Behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people who call this region home is Iran. And by Iran, I mean the ayatollahs. By Iran, I mean its regime, a regime who, by the way, its people don't support. The people of Iran are victims of that regime."

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After several days of Hamas threats to free no more hostages, it relented and released three on Saturday. This time it was an American-Israeli, a Russian-Israeli, and an Argentinian-Israeli.   

All three were put through the usual humiliating process of being paraded past jeering Gazans and forced onstage to tell lies about how well-treated they were as hostages.

But then, it was off to Israel, freedom, and the arms of loved ones who had been missing them for 498 days and nights.

President Trump observed, "Now, the good news is they look like they're in pretty good shape. Because the people from the week before didn't look like they were in good shape. They looked like Holocaust survivors, frankly."

Last week, Trump had demanded that all the remaining hostages be freed by Saturday, but he plans to leave the matter in Israel's hands. “I told Bibi, 'You do whatever you want,'" the president said.

He added, "That'll be up to Israel, what the next step is, in consultation with me.”

Netanyahu suggested he's working closely with Trump on getting the hostages freed, but some details must be kept secret. "Including when the gates of hell will be opened, as they surely will if all our hostages are not released, until the last one of them," the prime minister cautioned.

Jpnathan Dekel-Chen, the father of freed American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen says he's seen through personal contacts how dedicated the White House is to getting all the hostages out of Gaza.

“There is absolutely no way that the Trump administration will not see this through," he said. "We all understand that this is an imperfect agreement. That being said,  it is the agreement that we have, and it is the agreement that will spread joy to those many families who await their loved ones.”

Dekel-Chen's wife, Avital, believed their love would sustain them until his release; and now, it has. "After 498 days in Hamas captivity, he is here, right above us in the hospital, standing on his feet with a huge smile and joy in his heart," she noted.

Sapir Cohen, the partner of the now-freed Russian-Israeli, Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov, told her he prayed for her every day he was in captivity, that she would find a new man. "Because he didn't want me to wait for a man who would never come home," she said. "He didn’t believe he would get out alive.”

Now, negotiating teams have begun laying the groundwork for phase two of the ceasefire. That is supposed to lead to Hamas freeing all the remaining hostages still alive and Israel ending the war and leaving Gaza.

However, Witkoff admitted to Fox News that getting Israel and Hamas to agree to the same end is a tough sell. "Phase Two contemplates an end to the war, but it also contemplates Hamas not being involved in the government and being gone from Gaza.," Witkoff explained. "So, we've got to square those two things."

Yet, no one has solved the puzzle of how to satisfy both Israel's and Hamas' contradictory demands: Hamas refusing to free the hostages until Israel ends the war and leaves Gaza with Hamas still intact, and Israel refusing to end the war until Hamas is wiped out as a governing and military force.

Today also is the 500th day since October 7th. To commemorate the somber milestone, The Jerusalem Post published a banner headline reading "500 Days," along with a yellow ribbon containing the names of all the hostages captured by Hamas on that fateful day. The prayer and hope for all of Israel continues to be that all the hostages will come home.