There is no alternative to President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Israel on Friday, expressing “healthy optimism” that it will be fully implemented.

“There is no Plan B,” Rubio said during what was termed “a press gaggle” at the new Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat. “This is the best plan. It’s the only plan. It’s one that we think can succeed. It’s one that we believe it’s on the way to success, as impossible and unimaginable as it may have been.”

He added, “Remember a month ago, six weeks ago, no one would have thought possible that you were going to get all the hostages out. And I know that we still have the remains of hostages. That has to happen. That’s part of this. And we’re very committed to making sure that happens.”

Rubio said the United States was not going to stop pushing until “all the commitments that were made here are kept,” noting that these include the demilitarization of Hamas in Gaza.

“I think we have a lot to be proud of in the first 10 days, 11 days, 12 days of implementation, where we have faced real challenges along the way, including over the weekend, but also an exciting opportunity,” he said. “There’s going to be ups and downs and twists and turns. But I think we have a lot of reason for healthy optimism about the progress that’s being made.”

Stressing that the plan had been endorsed by dozens of countries, Rubio said its implementation would be carried out in close coordination with Israel. “A deal requires conditions to be met,” he said. “Israel’s met their commitments. They’re standing at the Yellow Line” in Gaza.

He said the world needs to understand that “on the other side of that Yellow Line, there is still a terrorist group that remains armed. And we’ve seen them take actions against their own population. I think it’s important, by the way, that there be more media coverage given to the fact that Hamas has brutalized Palestinians, has brutalized Gazans over the last few days.”

U.S. Central Command announced on Tuesday that it had opened the CMCC, the “main coordination hub for Gaza assistance,” in Israel on Oct. 17. CENTCOM said that the center “is designed to support stabilization efforts” and that Americans won’t deploy in Gaza. Instead, they will “help facilitate the flow of humanitarian, logistical and security assistance from international counterparts into Gaza.”

Rubio said he wanted to visit the center “to get a sense of the workflow, get a sense of the organization and get a sense of the needs.” 

He pointed out that humanitarian assistance was now flowing into Gaza, and that this involved “coordinating with all of these different organizations from around the world, including international organizations and charity groups. That’s a massive undertaking to coordinate all of that.”

Concluding that “It’ll be historic if it can be pulled off,” Rubio said the 20-point Trump deal would “change Israel’s security in the long term. It will change the character and the nature of the region in a positive way.”

He concluded, “We are committed to making that work and we’re committed to ensuring that every one of these points is lived up to. But it’s not going to be an easy ride. There are going to be bumps along the road, but we have to make it work. There is no other alternative and we feel good about the progress that’s being made. Every day that goes by, it gets better.”

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