Gaza ceasefire: JD Vance, in Israel, expresses optimism about truce despite recent violence

Vice President JD Vance visited Israel on Tuesday amid US efforts to shore up the fragile ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip, but he did not give a deadline for Hamas to disarm or say how officials would ensure the militant group agrees to that key part of the accord.

Israel and Hamas agreed this month to a truce in their two-year war, a deal based on parts of a plan outlined by President Donald Trump. The deal has come under increasing strain amid repeated flare-ups of violence in Gaza in recent days.

But Mr Vance, on the first day of his trip to Israel, expressed optimism that the deal would hold.

“Things are going, frankly, better than I expected,” he said during a news conference in southern Israel.

“My visit had nothing to do with the events of the past 48 hours,” Mr Vance added, referring to the recent violence.

Still, the disarmament of Hamas remains a key hurdle to securing a long-term end to the conflict. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has consistently said Hamas must be disarmed before the war can permanently end. But Hamas has long regarded disarmament as tantamount to surrender, with armed struggle against Israel a crucial part of the group’s ideology.

“I don’t think it’s actually advisable for us to say this has to be done in a week,” Mr Vance said at the news conference, which took place in southern Israel at a civil-military coordination centre hosting US personnel monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire.

There, Mr Vance attended security briefings alongside the Trump administration’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law. Both men were instrumental in brokering the ceasefire deal, alongside Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators.

Though all three men expressed optimism about the ceasefire, they gave few details of how they plan to move it toward a lasting peace.

Speaking alongside Mr Vance, Mr Kushner said the US was considering getting reconstruction underway in parts of Gaza that remain under Israeli control.

The United States is considering starting the reconstruction efforts because it wants to “give the Palestinians living in Gaza a place to go, a place to get jobs, a place to live,” Mr Kushner said. He added that no reconstruction funds would be made available for areas still controlled by Hamas. There was no immediate comment from Hamas, and it was not immediately clear how the group or others in Gaza would respond to the suggestion.

Earlier Tuesday, shortly after Mr Vance landed in Israel, Mr Trump said that if Hamas were to violate the agreement, a number of unnamed US allies in the Middle East would “welcome the opportunity” to respond to the militant group with “heavy force.”

“There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right,” Mr Trump wrote on social media.

Analysts said Mr Vance’s trip to Israel, which is expected to last until Thursday, was intended to send a warning to both Israel and Hamas not to undermine the truce.

On Sunday, Palestinian militants fired on Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killing two. In response, Israel launched a wave of strikes that killed 45 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials. The violence was short-lived, but analysts have warned that the truce is likely to be tested again.

Israeli forces have also attacked Palestinians they said crossed a demarcation line where Israeli military forces have withdrawn to inside Gaza. The Israeli military said some were militants, but on Saturday, Gaza officials said a number of civilians, including several children, had been killed.

Several Trump administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, told The New York Times on Monday that there was concern within the administration that Mr Netanyahu may vacate the US-backed deal.

At the news conference Tuesday, Mr Vance praised the Israeli government as “remarkably helpful” in implementing the peace plan.

The Vice President was scheduled to meet with Mr Netanyahu on Wednesday morning, according to the prime minister’s office.

Under the terms of the deal, Hamas handed over the 20 Israeli hostages it was still holding in Gaza, while Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in an exchange on Oct. 13.

Mr Trump and his mediators hope to build on the ceasefire to realize an ambitious post-war vision for Gaza that would see Hamas fighters lay down their weapons, an international force take charge of security and an independent Palestinian administration eventually assume control.

Hamas has expressed serious reservations about that plan, especially about disarming its fighters. And both sides have yet to meet significant parts of the initial ceasefire agreement, much less reach a broader deal on Gaza’s future.

For now, both Israel and Hamas say they are committed to the ceasefire.

On Tuesday evening, the Israeli government said that the bodies of two hostages had been handed over to Israeli forces in Gaza, via the Red Cross. Hamas had said earlier that it would hand over the remains of two additional deceased hostages.

Vance, meanwhile, urged patience regarding the recovery of the remaining bodies, saying that some remains are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble.

“It is a focus of everybody here to get those bodies back home to their families so that they can have a proper burial,” he said. “This is not going to happen overnight.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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