Rubio, a devout Catholic, and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Protestant pastor, donned kippas on their heads with Netanyahu as they reached out in silent prayer to touch the Western Wall.

They were then given a tour underneath of excavated remains of parts of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD as they crushed a Jewish revolt.

Rubio, Netanyahu and Huckabee all posed underground for pictures with their wives, who were barred from joining their husbands at the gender-segregated Western Wall.

Netanyahu called Rubio an "extraordinary friend of Israel".

"I think his visit here is a testament to the durability, the strength, of the Israel-American alliance," Netanyahu told reporters.

"It's as strong and as durable as the stones of the Western Wall that we just touched."

Under Rubio and President Donald Trump, "the alliance has never been stronger, and we deeply appreciate it", he said.

His remarks come despite Trump and Rubio both voicing concern after Israel on Tuesday carried out air strikes in Qatar, a close US partner, that targeted leaders of Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Rubio earlier said he would address the Qatar attack with Netanyahu but that it would not shake ties.

Rubio is the most senior US official to visit the Western Wall since Mike Pompeo, secretary of state in Trump's first term, went alongside Netanyahu in 2019.

Pompeo's visit was symbolic as the United States had historically tried to show neutrality on the status of the holy site, which also includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is sacred for Muslims.

Rubio is expected to take a new step on Monday by attending the inauguration of a tunnel for pilgrims heading to the holy site.

Asked by reporters about the visit, Rubio said on departure Saturday from the United States that he saw it as "one of the most important archaeological sites in the world" and played down the politics of it.

Trump during his first term took the landmark step of shifting the US embassy to Jerusalem, bucking an international consensus not to recognise Israel's claim that the city is its indivisible capital.

Rubio's predecessor Antony Blinken, who is Jewish, frequently visited Israel following the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas but did not go to the Western Wall, staying instead in more secular Tel Aviv.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as Rubio arrived to discuss the future of the conflict.

Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the militant group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called the last bastion of the militant Palestinian group.

Hamas' political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.