US Vice President JD Vance warned Wednesday of the tough task in disarming Hamas and building a peaceful future for Gaza, as Washington sought to reassure its ally Israel over the next steps in its ambitious ceasefire deal.
Vance met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the second day of a trip to Israel, part of a diplomatic blitz in support of the US-brokered plan to end the fighting, recover hostages, and, eventually, rebuild the devastated Palestinian territory.
“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said.
Vance began his three-day tour on Tuesday by launching the Civil-Military Coordination Centre in southwest Israel, where US and allied troops will coordinate with Israeli forces to monitor the truce and supervise relief to Gaza.
“A lot of our Israeli friends are working together with a lot of Americans to actually mediate this entire ceasefire process, to get some of the critical infrastructure off the ground,” Vance said, after talks with Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Vance cited an “international security force” as one of the bodies that would have to be set up. Under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, this military mission would keep the peace in Gaza as Israel withdraws.
Several US allies are considering joining the force, but no American troops would be on the ground inside Gaza, instead coordinating from the CMCC in Kiryat Gat, Israel.
Reports that Israel’s outspoken critic and regional rival Turkey could provide troops have rattled Israeli opinion.
Netanyahu said decisions on the new security force would be made in consultation with the US, but on Turkey’s role he said, “I have very strong opinions about that. You want to guess what they are?”
Despite an outbreak of violence on Sunday, in which two troops were murdered and Israel reacted with a lethal wave of air strikes, Vance voiced “great optimism” that the ceasefire would hold and the war-ending strategy would begin.
Netanyahu and his wife Sara welcomed Vance and US Second Lady Usha Vance to his office, where they sat down for breakfast before a business meeting and a televised press conference.
The Israeli leader, who has been chastised by some internal opponents for accepting the US-backed truce before Hamas is completely destroyed and all hostages’ remains are returned, defended the agreement.
“We’ve been able to do two things. Put the knife up to Hamas’s throat. That was the military effort guided by Israel,” he said, thanking Trump for his diplomatic efforts in the broader Middle East, smoothing relations with Israel’s neighbors.
“And the other effort was to isolate Hamas and the Arab and Muslim world, which I think the president did brilliantly with his team. So those two things produced the hostages,” Netanyahu said.
Vance also defended the Gaza pact as a “critical piece in unlocking the Abraham Accords”—a Trump administration effort to improve relations between Israel and its old Arab rivals.
Israel replied to the deaths of its soldiers on Sunday with a barrage of bombings, which the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said killed 45 Palestinians. Hamas denies any involvement in the killings.
Despite the fighting, Hamas has continued to hand over the corpses of murdered hostages in tiny quantities as part of the cease-fire agreement, and Palestinians have hailed the truce, despite their towns being destroyed.
Imran Skeik, a 34-year-old displaced civilian living in a tent in Al-Saraya Square in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, told AFP, “The situation is much better—the war has stopped, and there are no sounds of bombs and shelling like before.
“We hope the ceasefire continues and that Israel and Hamas both stick to it. We’ve started to get some rest, but there are still many problems. Will we have to stay in tents—another kind of suffering?”
The Israeli military announced Wednesday that the corpses of two additional hostages returned the day before had been identified as Aryeh Zalmanovich and Master Sergeant Tamir Adar.
Zalmanovich, 85 at the time of his death, was kidnapped from his house on kibbutz Nir Oz and slain in captivity on November 17, 2023, the military claimed.
On October 7, 2023, Adar the soldier, 38 at the time of his death, was slain while fighting to defend Nir Oz, and his body was taken hostage, according to reports.
The militants have now released 15 of the 28 hostage bodies agreed to be returned under the agreement, but Hamas claims the search is hampered by the extent of destruction in the territory.
The war, which began with Hamas’ October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel, has killed at least 68,229 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled enclave, data that the UN considers credible.
According to an AFP assessment based on official Israeli numbers, Hamas’ 2023 attack killed 1,221 persons; the majority of them were civilians.
