Vice President JD Vance is chatting with the press Tuesday as he and President Trump’s negotiating staff are in Israel, making an attempt to shore up the delicate ceasefire in Gaza. Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. particular envoy Steve Witkoff are there as a part of the staff.
Earlier than he left for Israel, Vance stated bumps within the highway to peace have been anticipated.
“There are gonna be fits and starts,” Vance informed reporters. “Hamas is gonna fire on Israel, Israel’s gonna have to respond, of course.”
Hamas has denied accountability for an alleged RPG assault that killed two Israeli troopers over the weekend. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Monday that it was a Hamas assault, and that the Israeli army responded to the alleged ceasefire violation by dropping nearly 169 tons of bombs in Gaza.
“One of our hands holds a weapon, the other hand is stretched out for peace,” Netanyahu informed lawmakers on Monday. “You make peace with the strong, not the weak. Today Israel is stronger than ever before.”
The Israeli strikes killed at the least 45 Palestinians, in response to well being officers within the Hamas-ruled territory.
President Trump warned Hamas on Monday in opposition to breaching the deal that took months to barter.
“They’re gonna behave, they’re gonna be nice,” he stated. “And if they’re not, we’re gonna go and eradicate them if we have to.”
Kushner and Witkoff met Monday with Netanyahu, and the Israeli chief’s workplace stated Vance would additionally meet him this week. The vp and second woman Usha Vance have been greeted upon their arrival Tuesday by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Israel’s Minister of Justice Yariv Levin.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrives at Ben Gurion airport, Oct. 21, 2025, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Nathan Howard/Pool/Getty
Vance was scheduled to have a working lunch with Witkoff and Kushner on Tuesday earlier than his assembly with Netanyahu.
The peace course of has taken incremental steps ahead regardless of the weekend violence, with Israel returning the stays of 15 Palestinians to Gaza on Tuesday following the handover by Hamas on Monday night of the physique of one other deceased hostage. As a part of the peace deal, a complete of 165 Palestinians’ our bodies have now been returned to Gaza, a lot of them former detainees, whereas all 20 dwelling Israeli hostages have been launched by Hamas, together with the stays of 13 deceased captives.
However regardless of these steps, the long-term viability of Mr. Trump’s peace plan, which he’s stated will finish almost eight many years of preventing between Israel and the Palestinians, stays much less sure.
Ex-Israeli official casts doubt on prospects for Trump’s peace plan
Some Israelis stay skeptical that the Israeli prime minister is genuinely excited about a long-lasting peace. Amongst them is fierce Netanyahu critic Alon Pinkas, who served as an advisor to 4 Israeli overseas ministers.
“This was an agreement he was bullied into,” Pinkas stated. “This is an agreement he signed under duress, and now he is developing a new scheme to manipulate Trump.”
Pinkas credited Mr. Trump for doing “something that his predecessors were disinclined or hesitant to do, and that is exert real pressure” on Israel’s chief.
“It worked, but it only worked for the first phase,” Pinkas stated, referring to the dwelling Israeli hostages being launched and the ceasefire coming into impact.
He stated after the weekend’s violence that the deal had been “ostensibly restored, but when Netanyahu says, ‘I’m restoring the ceasefire,’ it’s only because there’s a visit here of the vice president, JD Vance, and because the U.S. sent its envoy.”
Pinkas stated he was sure Israeli forces would resume operations in Gaza inside days, noting they remained deployed in about half of the Palestinian territory.
Israeli troopers stand subsequent to autos close to the Israel-Gaza border, in southern Israel, Oct. 19, 2025.
Amir Cohen/REUTERS
Hamas’ prime negotiator stated Tuesday that the group remained dedicated to the ceasefire settlement. However President Trump’s peace plan requires the demilitarization of Gaza, and plenty of analysts, together with Pinkas, have doubts that Hamas will willingly hand over all its weapons.
“That’s probably the biggest flaw in the agreement,” stated Pinkas. “The agreement in and of itself is a good agreement, but in order for an agreement like that to work, it requires good faith, good will, and trust. None of these ingredients exist. In fact, both sides have a vested interest in not progressing beyond the ceasefire.”
“Hamas wants to lure Israel inside [Gaza] into a de-facto occupation, and mount an insurgency and show to the Palestinians that they are the real resistance. And Netanyahu wants to go in because he knows that if everything stops now and there is progress into the next phases, that almost inevitably means that he will be deemed as the guy who failed to defeat Hamas.”
Pinkas stated that whereas the previous two years of conflict have left Hamas defeated militarily and degraded, “Hamas is not done. Hamas are there, and you see those pictures every day. You show them on CBS — Hamas gangs walking around in battle fatigues, armed. That’s not going to cut it politically for Mr. Netanyahu.”
An armed Hamas militant stands guard as a Pink Cross automobile arrives to obtain the our bodies of deceased Israeli hostages, in Gaza Metropolis, Oct. 14, 2025.
Dawoud Abu Alkas/REUTERS
