US Vice President Vance in Israel to shore up Gaza deal

US Vice President JD Vance speaks to US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Israel's ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter and Israel's Justice Minister Yariv Levin upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on October 21, 2025. [AFP] US Vice President JD Vance was in Israel on Tuesday to shore up a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal, as President Donald Trump piled more pressure on Hamas over the agreement he spearheaded. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were in Tel Aviv, where they met Israeli hostages released by Hamas after two years of captivity in Gaza. "Welcome to Israel, Vice President Vance," Israel's foreign ministry posted on social media. "Together, the Promised Land and The Land of the Free, can secure a better future, including the release of the remaining 15 hostages." Vance met Witkoff and Kushner on Tuesday, reporters said, and was due to also meet US military experts monitoring the truce. According to Israeli media reports he will meet Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday in Jerusalem. After Israel said Hamas killed two soldiers on Sunday and accused the group of stalling the handover of hostages' bodies, it unleashed a wave of strikes on the territory -- later saying it had "renewed enforcement" of the ceasefire. The United States is now redoubling efforts to cement the fragile Gaza deal Trump helped broker. Trump said that allied nations in the Middle East were prepared to send troops into Gaza to confront Hamas if it did not cease alleged violations of his peace plan. "Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have... informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and 'straighten our (sic) Hamas' if Hamas continues to act badly," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. Trump says he believes the deal is still holding and that Hamas militants understand what will happen if they breach it. "They'll be eradicated, and they know that," he told reporters at the White House on Monday. Hamas has denied any knowledge of Sunday's deadly violence in the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Israel responded after the soldiers' deaths with an intense wave of bombings the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said killed 45 Palestinians. "The only thing stopping Israel from further destroying Gaza is Trump," said Mairav Zonszein, senior analyst on Israel for the International Crisis Group (ICG). Netanyahu is "saying certain things to make Trump happy, but he's doing other things, and the ceasefire is very, very fragile", she told AFP. Zonszein said that Hamas's future was "still very much something that Israelis are concerned with". "As far as Israelis are concerned, they're happy the hostages are out. They want to stabilise... But they also are scared that Hamas is still standing," she said. Both sides say they are committed to the truce despite the weekend's violence, and Hamas' armed wing said it would return the bodies of two more hostages exhumed on Tuesday, with the handover taking place at 1800 GMT. Militants have so far handed over 13 of the 28 hostage bodies pledged to be returned under the deal, but Hamas has warned the search is hampered by the level of destruction in the territory. Netanyahu's office has said Israel "will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them". The Red Cross said it facilitated on Tuesday the transfer of the bodies of 15 Palestinians from Israel to Gaza as part of the deal, taking the total to 165. The ceasefire, which went into effect on October 10 also proposed an ambitious roadmap for Gaza's future, but its implementation has quickly faced challenges. On Monday, Netanyahu -- who is under pressure from hardliners in his government to abandon the deal and resume the fighting -- said he and Vance would discuss "the security challenges we face and the diplomatic opportunities before us". Egypt's intelligence head Hassan Rashad was also in Israel on Tuesday to reinforce the truce, according to Netanyahu's office and Egyptian state-linked media. US ally and fellow truce mediator Qatar accused Israel of what its leader called the "continued violation" of the now 11-day-old ceasefire. "We reiterate our condemnation of all Israeli violations and practices in Palestine," Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told legislators. Hamas' Gaza leader, in Cairo for talks with Egypt and Qatar, issued a statement expressing confidence the truce will hold. "What we heard from the mediators and from the US President reassures us that the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has ended," Khalil al-Hayya said. The war, triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 68,229 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers credible. The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children. Hamas' 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

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