Vance arrives in Israel as US tries to strengthen Gaza ceasefire

US Vice President J.D. Vance arrived in Israel as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to strengthen the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to push for the start of negotiations on long-term issues for a permanent end to the war with Hamas.

The two US special envoys who helped negotiate the deal, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, held talks with Netanyahu on Monday.

Their visits come after violence escalated on Sunday, threatening to derail the 12-day truce. Israel said that a Hamas attack killed two soldiers, which led to Israeli air strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians.

US President Donald Trump insisted on Monday that the ceasefire remained on track but also warned Hamas that it would be “eliminated” if it violated the agreement.

Trump is said to have sent his vice president and envoys to Israel to maintain momentum and push to begin talks on the second critical phase of his 20-point Gaza peace plan.

This includes the formation of an interim government in the Palestinian territories, the deployment of an international stabilization force, the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the disarmament of Hamas.

Israel previously said it would not join such talks until Hamas returns all the dead hostages it holds.

Vance, Witkoff and Kushner are also trying to ensure that the ceasefire agreement, which is based on the first phase of the peace plan, does not collapse first.

The New York Times quoted American officials as saying that they were concerned that the Israeli Prime Minister might “nullify” the agreement And the resumption of the comprehensive attack on Hamas.

Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament on Monday that he would discuss “security challenges” and “political opportunities” with Vance during his visit.

He added that Israeli forces dropped 153 tons of bombs on Gaza in response to what he described as Hamas’ “flagrant” violation of the ceasefire on Sunday.

“One of our hands holds a weapon and the other hand is extended in peace,” he said. “You make peace with the strong, not the weak. Today Israel is stronger than ever.”

The Israeli military blamed Hamas for an anti-tank missile attack on Sunday that killed two Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza and then carried out dozens of strikes across the Strip that hospitals said killed at least 45 Palestinians.

Afterwards, the Israeli army said it was resuming implementation of the ceasefire, while Hamas said it remained committed to the agreement.

However, four Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire east of Gaza City on Monday. The Israeli army said that its forces opened fire on “terrorists” who crossed the so-called “yellow line” that demarcates the area still occupied by Israeli forces.

Later, Trump told reporters at the White House: “We made an agreement with Hamas that they will be very good. They will behave well. They will be nice.”

“If they don’t do that, we will go and eliminate them, if we have to. They will be eliminated, and they know it,” he added.

Meanwhile, Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s chief negotiator, who is in Cairo, insisted that his movement and other Palestinian factions are committed to the ceasefire agreement and are “determined to implement it fully until the end.”

He told the Egyptian Cairo News Channel, “What we heard from the mediators and the American president confirms to us that the war in Gaza is over.”

Al-Hayya also said that Hamas is serious about handing over the bodies of all deceased hostages still in Gaza despite facing what he described as “extreme difficulty” in its efforts to extract them from the rubble due to the lack of specialized equipment.

On Tuesday night, Israeli authorities confirmed that Hamas had handed over the body of another Israeli hostage to the Red Cross in Gaza.

The remains were identified as Tal Haimi, 41, who the Israeli army said was killed on Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, which sparked the war.

This means that 13 of the bodies of the 28 hostages who were being held in Gaza when the ceasefire came into effect on October 10 have been returned so far.

Twenty Israeli hostages were also released alive last week in exchange for the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons.

There is anger in Israel because Hamas has not yet returned all the dead hostages, as the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said that the movement “is required to fulfill its obligations.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Program stressed that maintaining the ceasefire is “vital” to deliver life-saving humanitarian aid to the region.

Since the ceasefire entered into force, 530 World Food Program trucks have crossed into Gaza carrying more than 6,700 tons of food. Spokeswoman Abeer Atifa said at a press conference in Geneva that this is enough to feed nearly 500,000 people for two weeks.

But she said the agency has been unable to reach its daily target of 2,000 tons of supplies because not all crossings into the region are open.

She added that only two crossings – Kerem Shalom and Kissufim – were not operational and neither of them were located in the north, where the food situation remained “very serious.”

Some specialized nutritional supplements for children and pregnant women in the North have been distributed across the South, but large-scale deliveries have not been possible.

Ms. Atifa said that in the south of the province, where people were now able to access food in safety and dignity, there had been no looting of WFP supplies.

But she added that many people were often eating only a small portion of their supplies and rationing the rest because they were so worried about the future and feared deliveries might be blocked again.

Israel, which controls aid entering Gaza, temporarily halted aid deliveries in response to Sunday’s violence. Deliveries resumed on Monday after intense international pressure.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.

At least 68,216 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Strip.