US Vice President Vance Visits Israel Amid Efforts to Bolster Gaza Ceasefire

US Vice President JD Vance has arrived in Israel as part of the administration's efforts to reinforce the Gaza ceasefire agreement. He is expected to urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to initiate negotiations aimed at achieving a permanent end to the conflict with Hamas.

Special US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who played key roles in negotiating the ceasefire, also met with Netanyahu on Monday. Their visits follow a recent escalation in violence that threatened the 12-day-old truce. Israel reported that a Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of two soldiers, prompting Israeli airstrikes that killed dozens of Palestinians.

President Trump has dispatched his deputy and envoys to Israel to maintain momentum and advocate for the commencement of talks on the second phase of his 20-point Gaza peace plan. This phase includes establishing an interim government in the Palestinian territory, deploying an international stabilization force, withdrawing Israeli troops, and disarming Hamas.

Israel has previously stated it would not participate in such talks until Hamas returns all deceased hostages. Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner are also working to ensure the current ceasefire, based on the first phase of the peace plan, remains intact.

US officials have expressed concern that Netanyahu might abandon the deal and resume full-scale operations against Hamas. Netanyahu informed the Israeli parliament that he would discuss "security challenges" and "political opportunities" with Vance during his visit. He also stated that Israeli forces had dropped 153 tonnes of bombs on Gaza in response to what he described as a "blatant" ceasefire violation by Hamas.

The Israeli military attributed an anti-tank missile attack on Sunday, which killed two Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza, to Hamas. In retaliation, Israel conducted numerous strikes across the territory, resulting in at least 45 Palestinian deaths, according to hospital reports. Following these events, the Israeli military announced it was resuming enforcement of the ceasefire, while Hamas affirmed its commitment to the agreement.

However, reports indicate that four Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire east of Gaza City on Monday. The Israeli military stated that its troops fired at "terrorists" who crossed the "Yellow Line," marking the area still occupied by Israeli forces.

President Trump addressed the situation, stating: "We made a deal with Hamas that they're going to be very good. They're going to behave. They're going to be nice." He added, "If they're not, we're going to go and we're going to eradicate them, if we have to. They'll be eradicated, and they know that."

Hamas's chief negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, currently in Cairo, insisted that his group and other Palestinian factions are committed to the ceasefire deal and "determined to fully implement it until the end." He expressed reassurance from mediators and the US president that "the war in Gaza is over."

Al-Hayya also mentioned that Hamas is serious about handing over the bodies of all deceased hostages still in Gaza, despite facing "extreme difficulty" in recovering them from under rubble due to a lack of specialist equipment.

Overnight, Israeli authorities confirmed that Hamas had handed over the body of another deceased Israeli hostage to the Red Cross in Gaza. The remains were identified as those of Tal Haimi, 41, who the Israeli military said was killed in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war.

This brings the total to 13 of the 28 hostages' bodies held in Gaza when the ceasefire took effect on October 10 that have been returned. Additionally, 20 living Israeli hostages were released last week in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails.

There has been public dissatisfaction in Israel that Hamas has not yet returned all the deceased hostages, with the Israeli prime minister's office stating that the group "was required to uphold its commitments."

Meanwhile, the UN's World Food Programme emphasized that sustaining the ceasefire is "vital" for delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to the territory. Since the ceasefire took effect, 530 WFP trucks have crossed into Gaza with more than 6,700 tonnes of food, enough to feed almost 500,000 people for two weeks, according to spokeswoman Abeer Atefa.

However, she noted that the agency could not reach its daily target of 2,000 tonnes of supplies because not all crossings into the territory were open. Only two crossings—Kerem Shalom and Kissufim—were functional, with neither located in the north, where the food situation remained "extremely dire."

Some specialized nutritional supplements for children and pregnant women have been distributed in the north via the south, but no large-scale deliveries have been possible.

Atefa mentioned that in the south of the territory, where people can now access food safely and with dignity, there has been no looting of WFP supplies. However, she added that many people are rationing their supplies due to anxiety about the future and fears that deliveries could be blocked again.

Israel, which controls the entry of aid into Gaza, temporarily halted deliveries in response to Sunday's violence. Deliveries resumed on Monday following heavy international pressure.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the October 7, 2023, attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages. At least 68,216 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.