Vance arrives in Israel as the US tries to cement a ceasefire in Gaza

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

He is expected to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to open talks on long-term issues for a final end to the war with Hamas.

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

Their visits come after an outbreak of violence on Sunday that threatened to derail a 12-day ceasefire. Israel said a Hamas attack killed two soldiers, prompting Israeli airstrikes that killed dozens of Palestinians.

US President Donald Trump insisted on Monday that the truce was still in place, but also warned Hamas that it would be “rooted out” if it violated the agreement.

Trump is said to have sent his deputy and envoys to Israel to keep the momentum going and push for negotiations on the second critical phase of his 20-point Gaza peace plan.

This would include the establishment of an interim government in the Palestinian territory, the deployment of an international stabilization force, the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the disarmament of Hamas.

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 US officials as saying they were concerned that Israel’s prime minister could “undo” the deal and to resume an all-out assault on Hamas.

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

He also said Israeli forces had dropped 153 tons of bombs on Gaza in response to what he called a “flagrant” ceasefire violation by Hamas on Sunday.

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

Israel’s military blamed Hamas for an anti-tank rocket attack on Sunday that killed two Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza and then carried out dozens of strikes in the territory that hospitals said killed at least 45 Palestinians.

The Israeli army then 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 its troops fired on “terrorists” who crossed the agreed cease-fire line in the Shejaya area.

Trump later told reporters at the White House: “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.”

“If they are not, we will go and root them out if we have to. They will be rooted out and they know it,” he added.

Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Haya, who is in Cairo, meanwhile insisted that his group and other Palestinian factions were committed to the ceasefire agreement and were “determined to implement it fully to the end”.

“What we heard from the mediators and the US president reassures us that the war in Gaza is over,” he told Egypt’s Al-Qahera News TV.

Haya also said Hamas was 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 retrieve them from the rubble due to a lack of specialized equipment.

Overnight, Israeli officials confirmed that Hamas had handed over the body of another deceased Israeli hostage to the Gaza Red Cross.

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

That means 13 of the 28 bodies of hostages held in Gaza when the ceasefire took effect on October 10 have so far been returned.

Twenty live Israeli hostages were also released last week in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails.

There was anger in Israel that Hamas had not yet returned all the dead hostages, with the Israeli prime minister’s office saying the group “was obliged to honor its commitments”.

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

At least 68,216 have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.