Rubio begins Middle East tour as Arab leaders bid to counter Trump’s Gaza plan

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar, left, welcomes US Secretary of State Marco Rubio as he arrives in Tel Aviv (Evelyn Hockstein/pool/AP)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is kicking off a Middle East tour in Israel on Sunday, as Arab leaders reel from President Donald Trump’s proposal to transfer the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip to other countries and redevelop it under American ownership.

On what is Mr Rubio’s first visit to the region as America’s top diplomat, he is likely to get a warm welcome from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has praised the plan, and pushback from Arab leaders, who have universally rejected it and are scrambling to come up with a counter-proposal.