There is a good chance the Gaza peace deal between Israel and Hamas will remain intact, US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday.
“What we’ve seen last week gives me great hope that the ceasefire is going to hold,” he said during a press conference in Kiryat Gat. “Given the history of the conflict, I think everyone should be proud of where we are today.”
“I feel very optimistic,” he added. “Can I say with 100% certainty that it’s going to work? No.”
Vance thanked America’s regional partners and those who have reportedly signed on to be part of the peacekeeping force in Gaza.
“The Israeli government has been remarkably helpful in implementing the Gaza plan,” he said. “Thanks to our partners in Israel, all across the Gulf Arab states, Indonesia, and the Turks, we are doing an amazing thing here.
“Everyone has a role to play” in deciding which countries will contribute to the peacekeeping force in Gaza, Vance said, adding that the decision was ultimately up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“What troops are on the ground in Israel is going to be a question Israelis have to agree to,” he said, “and I’m sure Netanyahu will have opinions about that. But we think everybody has a role to play here.”
Regarding the return of the remaining deceased hostages, Vance said the location of some of them was unknown. The issue is difficult and would not be resolved overnight, he said.
“It is a focus of everybody here to get those bodies back home to their families so that they can have a proper burial,” Vance said.
“Some of these hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble,” he said. “Some of the hostages – nobody even knows where they are. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work to get them, and that doesn’t mean we don’t have confidence that we will. It’s just a reason to counsel in favor of a little patience.”
Vance also said the US would obliterate Hamas if it did not disarm.
“If Hamas doesn’t comply with the deal, very bad things are going to happen,” he said. “But I’m not going to do what the president of the United States has thus far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it, because a lot of this stuff is difficult. A lot of this stuff is unpredictable.”
Regarding Iran, Vance said the US would like to improve relations, but Tehran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
US President Donald Trump’s special envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, also expressed optimism about the Gaza deal.
Kushner said he believed the peace agreement was progressing well despite media speculation.
“A lot of people are getting a little hysterical about different incursions,” he said. “But what we are seeing is that things are going in accordance with the plan. Both sides are transitioning from two years of very intense warfare to a peacetime posture.”
Kushner said he believed that reconstruction of Gaza under the IDF’s supervision was being “strongly considered.”
“There are considerations happening now in the area that the IDF controls... as long as that can be secured to start the construction of a new Gaza in order to give the Palestinians living in Gaza a place to go, a place to get jobs, a place to live,” he said.
“No reconstruction funds will be going into areas that Hamas still controls,” Kushner said.
Vance said the base of US Central Command (CENTCOM) in the Kiryat Gat area was now fully operational.
The peacekeeping forces on the ground in Gaza would not be Americans, he said.
CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said the base would be the hub for everything coming in or out of Gaza.
Witkoff said he thought current efforts to maintain the ceasefire had exceeded expectations.
Before visiting the US base near Kiryat Gat, Vance met with Kushner and Witkoff at Ben-Gurion Airport.
On Monday, Netanyahu said he would discuss regional challenges and opportunities with Vance during his visit to Israel.
Kushner and Witkoff arrived in Israel on Monday and met with Netanyahu. In that meeting, they emphasized the importance of maintaining the deal.
Netanyahu reportedly was told it is “legitimate to act in self-defense, but not in a way that endangers the ceasefire.”
Kushner and Witkoff met with recently released Gaza hostages.
This followed Netanyahu’s meeting with senior security officials concerning Hamas’s delay in returning the remains of the slain hostages and the next phase of Trump’s plan.