Rubio Says U.S. Is Closer Than Ever to Hostage Deal, Insists Gaza Cannot Be Run by Terrorists

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on Sunday that negotiators are the "closest we have been in a very long time" to securing the release of all Israeli hostages held by Hamas, a breakthrough he unequivocally attributed to a comprehensive peace framework put forth by President Donald Trump and the powerful international coalition he assembled to support it.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Rubio confirmed that Hamas has accepted the "entire construct" of the president's proposal for freeing the hostages and that talks are now underway to finalize the complex logistics of their release.

While acknowledging that the subsequent phase of establishing a new, non-terrorist governance for Gaza will be "a much tougher part" of the process, the Secretary of State expressed a level of optimism not seen in months, stating that a powerful alignment of Arab, Islamic, and European nations is now pushing in the same direction to end the nearly two-year-old war.

"Hamas has accepted the entire construct of President Trump’s proposal for releasing the hostages," Secretary Rubio told host Gillian Turner, pushing back on the notion that Hamas's recent statements were merely a stalling tactic.

"Forty-eight – 20 that are alive, 28 that are deceased – and now what’s happening, even as I speak to you right now, is there’s talks ongoing, which we hope will be finalized very quickly, on the logistics of that – who’s going to go in, what time are they going to be released, how is all that going to work?"

He framed this development in unambiguous terms: "So that’s good news. I think that we are the closest we have been in a very long time to having no hostages held by Hamas, either living or deceased."

The high-stakes diplomatic push is set to intensify on Monday, as delegations from Hamas, Israel, and the United States are scheduled to convene in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh for crucial talks.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the meetings are timed to take place on the eve of the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that ignited the devastating war.

Both Hamas and Israel have responded positively to President Trump's roadmap, and the president himself has been urging a rapid conclusion to the negotiations.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump stated, "there have been very positive discussions with Hamas" and that the talks were "proceeding rapidly," adding, "the first phase should be completed this week, and I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST."

He has dispatched two of his most trusted emissaries, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, to Egypt to help finalize the deal.

Secretary Rubio emphasized that the process is unfolding in two distinct, though interconnected, phases. The first, and most immediate, is securing the freedom of the hostages.

"We’ve got to get the hostages out, we’ve got to get the war stopped, and then we’ve got to find a permanent solution to this so it never happens again," he explained. The terms of this initial phase, as outlined in the U.S. plan, call for the release of all hostages, both living and dead, within 72 hours.

In exchange, Israel is expected to release approximately 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and more than 1,700 detainees from the Gaza Strip who were arrested during the war.

Rubio acknowledged that this exchange would be a "bitter pill for the Israelis to swallow." He noted the painful precedent for such unbalanced deals, stating, "We have seen, in the past, hundreds of Palestinian terrorists be released in exchange for one Israeli soldier."

However, he stressed the Israeli government's profound commitment to its citizens. "As unfair and as unjust and as unbalanced as a deal like that may be, that’s how important life is to them," he said.

Once the hostages are released, Israeli forces would pull back to a position they held inside Gaza in mid-August, referred to as the "yellow line." At that point, the much more difficult second phase of the plan would begin: determining the future governance of the Gaza Strip.

"Who’s going to run Gaza moving forward? It can’t be Hamas; it can’t be a terrorist organization," Rubio stated. "The demobilization of terrorism in Gaza is the end goal here."

The U.S. proposal, which has been endorsed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stipulates that Hamas and other factions "not have any role in the governance of Gaza."

Instead, the administration of the territory would be taken up by a technocratic body of non-terrorist Palestinians, overseen by a post-war transitional authority headed by President Trump himself and including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Secretary Rubio conceded that this second phase will be immensely challenging. "The details on that part of the deal are going to be difficult to work through," he said, adding that while Hamas has "generally accepted" the outlines, "not entirely."

He stressed that rebuilding Gaza and establishing a stable governance structure will "take some time." "That whole place has to be rebuilt. That’s not going to happen in 72 hours or six weeks," he said.

Despite these hurdles, what gives the Secretary of State confidence is the unprecedented international coalition that President Trump has built.

In a separate post on X, Rubio stated, "what gives us hope is the coalition the President of the United States built that is pushing in the same direction with us to get the hostages released and the conflict resolved."

He elaborated on this in his interview, noting that this was the key difference from previous failed efforts. "For the first time in this entire endeavor, you have the United Arab Emirates, you have Qatar, you have Saudi Arabia, you have Türkiye, you have Egypt, you have Jordan, you have Indonesia, you have all these countries – the European countries – all lined up behind a plan and putting a tremendous amount of pressure to make it happen," he said. "And President Trump is the one that put that together."

Even Iran, a key backer of Hamas, issued a statement on Sunday saying it supports "any initiative" aimed at securing "self-determination" for the Palestinian people.

While expressing this newfound hope, Rubio was careful not to offer "false reassurances," acknowledging the profound "hope and dread" felt by the families of the hostages, who have endured over two years of agonizing uncertainty.

He was blunt in his assessment of Hamas, the group with whom negotiators are ultimately dealing. "We are dealing with killers and savages and terrorists," he stated, referencing the horrific atrocities of October 7. "We’re not dealing with a political movement."

We’re not dealing with a political movement, we’re dealing with killers, savages, and terrorists.

But what gives us hope is the coalition @POTUS built that is pushing in the same direction with us to get the hostages released and the conflict resolved. https://t.co/1rTYMmI99d

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) October 5, 2025

This reality was underscored by continued violence on the ground. According to Gaza's civil defense agency, Israeli attacks killed at least 20 people across the territory on Sunday.

This prompted Secretary Rubio to issue a call for de-escalation ahead of the talks. In a separate interview with CBS, he urged Israel to stop its bombing, stating, "You can't release hostages in the middle of strikes, so the strikes will have to stop."

Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, however, warned on Sunday that if the negotiations failed, the military would "return to fighting" in Gaza.

As the negotiators converge on Sharm El-Sheikh, the region holds its breath. A senior Hamas official told AFP that the group is "very keen to reach an agreement," and Prime Minister Netanyahu has expressed hope that the hostages could be released within days.

The path forward is fraught with difficulty and the potential for failure remains high, but for the first time in a long time, thanks to an American-led diplomatic push that has forged an unlikely and powerful international consensus, a genuine opportunity for peace appears to be within reach.