In apparent about face, Rubio signs onto G7 statement backing resumption of Gaza aid

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signed onto a joint statement with fellow G7 members calling for a resumption of aid into Gaza and the establishment of a political horizon for the Palestinians, and expressing concern over recent hostilities in the West Bank — all stances that have not been vocalized by the Trump administration to date.

The joint statement was still apparently softened at the State Department’s request, containing no mention of a two-state solution and keeping the line on recent West Bank hostilities vague, without any mention of settler violence, which has raged in recent years with very little government pushback.

Still, Rubio got on board with the lines regarding the West Bank, humanitarian aid for Gaza and a political horizon for the Palestinians that seemed out of step with the rhetoric that has so far come from the Trump administration.

Washington hasn’t spoken out once against settler violence since Trump took office in January, and Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office that removed a sanctions regime that his predecessor Joe Biden had put in place against violent settlers.

The US backed Israel’s decision earlier this month to begin withholding aid from Gaza, arguing that assistance shouldn’t be resumed until a “safe framework” is instituted to ensure that it can’t be diverted to Hamas.

On the issue of a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, too, the Trump administration has been largely mum, avoiding any public backing for a two-state solution, which most of the international community supports.

It was not immediately clear whether the decision to sign onto the G7 statement was made because the document is seen as symbolic and unlikely to have a tangible impact on the ground, or because the Trump administration is using it to demonstrate a shift in its positions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The statement from the top diplomats of the US Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the EU begins by calling for the release of all hostages from Gaza and stresses “the harm inflicted on the hostages during their captivity and the violation of their dignity through the use of ‘handover ceremonies’ during their release.”

The foreign ministers “reiterated that Hamas can have no role in Gaza’s future and must never again be a threat to Israel,” the statement says.

They also “affirmed their readiness to engage with Arab partners on their proposals to chart a way forward on reconstruction in Gaza and build a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace.”