US Vice-President JD Vance is in Israel as part of a US push to advance the ceasefire deal. Photo / Getty Images
US Vice-President JD Vance is in Israel as part of a US push to advance the ceasefire deal. Photo / Getty Images
United States Vice-President JD Vance today projected cautious optimism in the Trump Administration’s Middle East peace plans, as he arrived in Israel following a weekend of violence that threatened the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“Things are going, frankly, better than I expected,” Vance said during a newsconference, where he was joined by Steve Witkoff, the US Middle East envoy, and Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
The addition of Vance, just a week after Trump was in Israel, underscored not only the fragility of the ceasefire - but also how much external intervention will be required to keep it on track before the start of negotiations for the thornier second phase, which aims for a permanent end to the war.
Vance arrived in Israel days after the Israeli military killed dozens of people in Gaza in strikes it said were a response to a Hamas attack.
The Vice-President said his trip to the region was unrelated to the events of the last 48 hours and had been planned for months.
Witkoff and Kushner, who played heavyweight roles in getting the ceasefire deal over the finish line, had also planned their trip to Israel before Monday’s violence but during a week that included accusations of violations from both sides, a significant dispute over the return of deceased hostages from Gaza and reports of Israeli troops firing on Palestinians on a daily basis.
In meetings yesterday, Witkoff told Netanyahu that Israel’s responses to any ceasefire breaches should be proportionate to the violation and that the next 30 days are crucial for the deal to hold and for talks to enter the second phase, according to a person familiar with the details of the visit.
Smoke billows following an Israeli strike on Monday that targeted a building in the Bureij camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip. Photo / Eyad Baba, AFP
Israel is also pressuring the Trump Administration to ensure Hamas is disarmed before negotiations over Gaza’s reconstruction, the person said.
In Israel, Vance’s visit has been viewed as Washington signalling to all parties that it is running the show and will ensure the deal gets to the next stage, according to Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
It is also being seen as a means to supervise Netanyahu and ensure that he doesn’t return to fighting in Gaza, she added, describing it as a “sign of Israel’s weakness vis-a-vis Trump”.
As the US pushed Netanyahu’s Government to advance the ceasefire deal, Arab mediators also pressured Hamas to step up efforts to locate the remaining bodies of deceased hostages.
The group and allied militants have handed over the remains of 13 hostages so far, out of 28. Last week, they released 20 living hostages, all of whom were abducted when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
“They are trying, and we, as Egypt, are pushing them further,” said Mohamed Ibrahim al-Deweiry, former senior intelligence official and deputy head of the Egyptian Centre for Strategic Studies.
Egypt summoned a Hamas delegation to Cairo on Monday to get the group to reaffirm its commitment to “fully abide by the agreement” and “to actually be more serious about trying to retrieve the bodies”, he said.
The armed wing of Hamas said in a statement today that it would hand over the bodies of two more deceased hostages today.
“We are serious about retrieving all the bodies, as has been agreed upon in the agreement, and we don’t have any desire or ambition to keep any of them,” said Khalil al-Hayya, the lead negotiator for Hamas, in an interview on Egyptian state television.
Hamas has said throughout the negotiations that it would take time and equipment to find the bodies, which were buried or trapped under the rubble in various places across Gaza. Israel has accused the group of holding the bodies back.
Egypt’s intelligence chief, Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, also met Netanyahu to discuss advancing the ceasefire plan to the next phase, among other issues, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office. Rashad was later expected to meet Witkoff, Egyptian state media reported.
- Claire Parker and Heba Farouk Mahfouz contributed to this report.
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