U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that he is “very optimistic” about maintaining the ceasefire in Gaza during a visit to Israel, as maximum pressure continues on the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
The United States and Israel have accused Hamas, which denies the claim, of violating the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, where deadly violence on Sunday threatened the U.S.-brokered truce overseen by President Donald Trump.
The ceasefire, which went into effect on October 10, is the third after two years of war in Gaza, triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
“What we’ve seen over the past week makes me very optimistic that the ceasefire will hold,” Vance said in Kiryat Gat in southwestern Israel, near the besieged and heavily damaged Gaza Strip.
“Whenever there’s an act of violence, there’s a tendency to say, ‘Oh, this is the end of the ceasefire, the end of the peace plan.’ It’s not the end,” he added.
Under the agreement, Hamas had released all 20 living hostages it held since the October 7 attack by October 13. It was also supposed to return all the bodies of deceased hostages by that date but had only handed over 13, citing difficulties in locating the remains in the devastated territory.
The group announced it would return the bodies of two more of the 15 remaining hostages at 18:00 GMT.
Earlier, President Trump said his allies in the Middle East and beyond were ready to “enter Gaza in force and correct Hamas if it continued to misbehave in violation of the agreement.”
“FAST, TERRIBLE, AND BRUTAL!”
“There is still hope that Hamas will do the right thing. If they don’t, the end of Hamas will be FAST, TERRIBLE, AND BRUTAL!” Trump added on his Truth Social platform.
Vance is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit. Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are also in Israel.
In Egypt, Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said, “The Gaza agreement will hold because we want it to. Our commitment to uphold it is strong.”
“We are determined to recover the bodies of all those held,” he added, despite “difficulties in retrieving them.”
The agreement appeared to falter after Sunday’s deadly violence in Gaza, the deadliest since its implementation. Israel carried out strikes in response, citing Hamas attacks, which the group denied.
Gaza’s Civil Defense reported 45 deaths, while the Israeli military confirmed two soldier fatalities.
A later stage of Trump’s plan calls for the gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas, excluding any role for the group in Gaza governance.
Vance stated that Washington has not set a deadline for Hamas’s disarmament and has no immediate plans to issue an ultimatum.
“Hamas must comply with the agreement, and if it does not, very bad things will happen. But I’m not going to do what the U.S. president has so far refused to do, which is to set an explicit deadline, because these things are difficult,” he said.
“It’s Trump”
“The only thing preventing Israel from further devastating Gaza is Trump,” noted Mairav Zonszein, analyst at the International Crisis Group.
“Israelis are pleased with the hostage releases (…) but they fear Hamas still stands,” she added. Netanyahu, in this context, “talks about peace (…) but at the same time, bombs Gaza and again seeks to condition aid access.”
Maintaining the ceasefire is “vital” to “save lives” in Gaza, which is facing a humanitarian disaster, said the World Food Programme, urging all crossings to be opened for aid delivery.
The October 7 attack killed 1,221 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to AFP’s tally based on official sources.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has caused 68,229 deaths in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.
AFP
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