US Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens as he speaks to media at Ben Gurion International Airport, as he departs Tel Aviv for Qatar following an official visit, near Lod, Israel, Sept. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool

Qatar and the United States are on the verge of finalizing an enhanced defense cooperation agreement, top US diplomat Marco Rubio said on Tuesday, after Israel’s attack on Hamas political leaders in Doha last week drew widespread condemnation.

“We have a close partnership with the Qataris. In fact, we have an enhanced defense cooperation agreement, which we’ve been working on, we’re on the verge of finalizing,” Rubio said while departing Tel Aviv for Doha.

Rubio met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and discussed defense cooperation, Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said.

“This [Israeli] attack, of course, expedites the need for a renewed strategic defence agreement between us and the United States. It’s not something new per se, but certainly expedited,” Al Ansari said in a briefing after Rubio’s visit.

QATAR HOSTS BIGGEST US BASE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

The attack in Doha was especially sensitive as Qatar is a close US ally and home to the biggest US military base in the Middle East. Qatar has been hosting and mediating ceasefire talks – alongside Egypt – since the Gaza war started nearly two years ago.

When asked about the mediation efforts in light of the Doha attack, Al Ansari said: “Our focus right now is protecting our sovereignty and we will not look into other issues until this one is resolved.”

The Amiri Diwan, or Emir’s Office, said in a later statement that the emir discussed with Rubio the future of joint diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and release Israeli hostages held in the enclave, as well as Palestinian prisoners.

The two also discussed the repercussions of the Israeli attack in Doha, the Emir’s Office added.

TRUMP ‘UNHAPPY’ WITH ISRAELI STRIKE

US President Donald Trump said during a visit to Doha in May that Washington would protect Qatar if it ever came under attack. He said he was not informed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in advance about Israel’s attack.

Trump said he was unhappy with Israel’s strike, which he described as a unilateral action that did not advance US or Israeli interests.

He sought to assure the Qataris that such attacks would not happen again during a meeting with the Qatari prime minister in New York on Friday.

Rubio called for Qatar to continue its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war, saying there was “a very short window of time in which a deal could happen.”

“If any country in the world can help mediate it, Qatar is the one. They’re the ones that can do it,” Rubio said while departing Tel Aviv for Doha.

Qatar called the Israeli attack “cowardly and treacherous,” but said it wouldn’t deter it from its role as a mediator, alongside Egypt and the United States.

Netanyahu threatened to attack Hamas leaders “wherever they are” during a press conference with Rubio on Monday, as the heads of Arab and Islamic states held a summit to back Qatar after Israel’s attack last week in the Gulf state.

Illustrative: Smoke billows following an Israeli air strike in Sanaa, Yemen, Sept. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Israel said it struck a military infrastructure site in its latest attack on Yemen’s Houthi terrorists at the Red Sea port of Hodeidah on Tuesday.

The Houthis, Islamist rebels backed by Iran who control the most populous parts of Yemen, have attacked vessels in the Red Sea in what they describe as solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Tuesday’s attack came hours after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for the port and a few weeks after a major Israeli attack that killed Houthi officials in August.

Al Masirah TV, a station affiliated with the Houthis, said that 12 Israeli strikes targeted the port‘s docks.

Two sources at the port told Reuters the strikes targeted three docks restored after previous Israeli hits. Residents in the area told Reuters the attack lasted about 10 minutes.

“The Houthi terrorist organization will continue to suffer blows and will pay painful prices for any attempt to attack the State of Israel,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X following the attack.

The Houthis have also in the past fired missiles towards Israel, most of which have been intercepted.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Telegram that the group’s air defenses had been able to force Israeli warplanes away but provided no proof.

The Israeli military‘s statement gave no details of the strike beyond saying they hit infrastructure.

“The Hodeidah Port is used by the Houthi terrorist regime for the transfer of weapons supplied by the Iranian regime, in order to execute attacks against the State of Israel and its allies,” it said.

Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, Sept. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Israel launched a long-anticipated ground offensive in Gaza City on Tuesday, as the military confirmed it began efforts to “destroy Hamas infrastructure” with a major push in the area after heavy bombing overnight.

An Israel Defense Forces official said ground troops were moving deeper into the enclave’s main city, and that the number of soldiers would rise in coming days to confront up to 3,000 Hamas combatants the IDF believes are still in the city.

“Gaza is burning,” Defense Minister Israel Katz posted on X. “The IDF strikes with an iron fist at the terrorist infrastructure and IDF soldiers are fighting bravely to create the conditions for the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”

In launching the offensive, Israel‘s government defied European leaders threatening sanctions and warnings from even some of Israel‘s own military commanders that it could be a costly operation.

US President Donald Trump sided with Israel, telling reporters at the White House that Hamas would have “hell to pay” if it used hostages as human shields during the assault.

In the latest expression of international alarm, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel called the assessment “scandalous” and “fake.”

Israel says it has gone to unprecedented lengths to try and avoid civilian casualties, noting its efforts to evacuate areas before it targets them and to warn residents of impending military operations with leaflets, text messages, and other forms of communication. However, Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades, has in many cases prevented people from leaving, according to the IDF.

Another challenge for Israel is Hamas’s widely recognized military strategy of embedding its terrorists within Gaza’s civilian population and commandeering civilian facilities like hospitals, schools, and mosques to run operations and direct attacks.

Gaza health officials, who work for Hamas-controlled organizations, reported at least 70 people had been killed on Tuesday, most of them in Gaza City, as airstrikes swept across the city and tanks advanced.

Israel renewed calls on civilians to leave, and columns of Palestinians streamed towards the south and west in donkey carts, rickshaws, heavily laden vehicles, or on foot.

Hours before the escalation, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in Jerusalem that, while the United States wished for a diplomatic end to the war, “we have to be prepared for the possibility that’s not going to happen.”

But in Brussels, a spokesperson for the EU executive said it would agree on Wednesday to impose new sanctions on Israel, including suspending certain trade provisions.

Some residents were staying put, too poor to secure a tent and transport or because there was nowhere safe to go.

“It is like escaping from death towards death, so we are not leaving,” said Um Mohammad, a woman living in the suburb of Sabra, under aerial and ground fire for days.

The IDF said it estimated 40 percent of people in Gaza City had left. Hamas said 350,000 had left their homes in the eastern parts of the city, heading to displacement shelters in its central or western areas, while another 175,000 people had fled the city altogether, heading south.

Much of Gaza City was laid to waste in the early weeks of the war in 2023, but around 1 million Palestinians had returned there to homes among the ruins.

Israeli military spokesperson Effie Defrin said the military was adjusting its humanitarian efforts in light of the evacuations and “there will not be a situation of starvation in Gaza.”

Some Israeli military commanders have expressed concern that the Gaza City offensive could endanger remaining hostages held by Hamas or be a “death trap” for troops.

Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, at a meeting Benjamin Netanyahu convened late on Sunday with security chiefs, urged the prime minister to pursue a ceasefire deal, according to three Israeli officials, two of whom were in the meeting and one of whom was briefed on its details.

Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists attacked Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. Israel responded with a campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military capabilities and political rule in neighboring Gaza.