United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have held further talks cementing the countries’ close alliance, as the Arab-Islamic summit of regional leaders gathered in Doha to denounce the unprecedented attack on Qatar last week, for which the Israeli leader took “full responsibility”, as well as next steps in the punishing war on Gaza.The two officials had a two-hour meeting at Netanyahu’s West Jerusalem office on Monday, after which they held a joint news conference in which the Israeli leader said the two countries will continue to act together to protect each other. “Rubio’s visit is a clear message that America stands with Israel in the face of terror,” Netanyahu said.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listNetanyahu claimed there is “immense hypocrisy” among those who criticised Israel over the strike on Qatar, even though US President Donald Trump was one of them. He again said Israel will hit Hamas “wherever they are”.Rubio leaned heavily into the Israeli narrative on the war, saying, “Hamas needs to cease to exist as an armed element that can threaten peace and security in the region.”The top US diplomat said “we are focused on what happens next” when asked about Israel’s strike in Doha.The show of unity comes a day after Rubio and Netanyahu visited the Western Wall along with US envoy Mike Huckabee and praised strong bilateral relations.Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, Jordan, said: “The main takeaway from the press conference here was that no new information was presented to the public regarding the att …
