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JD Vance voices 'great optimism' for Gaza truce on Israel visit
US Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that he had "great optimism" the Gaza truce would hold, during a visit to Israel aimed at shoring up the ceasefire, with Washington piling pressure on Hamas.
In a sign of the fragility of the agreement, Vance said Washington would not set a deadline for Hamas to disarm as required under the terms of the deal.
That came after US President Donald Trump warned that allied nations in the region would invade Gaza to confront Hamas if it failed to comply with the truce.
"What we've seen the past week gives me great optimism the ceasefire is going to hold," Vance said during a press conference in Kiryat Gat, a city in southern Israel where a US-led mission is monitoring the Gaza ceasefire.
"I think that everybody should be proud of where we are today. It's going to require constant effort. It's going to require constant monitoring and supervision," he added.
According to Israeli media reports, Vance was due to meet Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday in Jerusalem.
There have been tensions over the implementation of the ceasefire, with Hamas saying it needs time and technical assistance to find the remaining dead Israeli hostages under the rubble of the Gaza Strip.
And on Sunday there was the worst outbreak of violence since the start of the truce, with Israel launching deadly strikes after two of its soldiers were killed.
Before Vance's arrival, Trump gave a stark warning to Hamas.
"Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have... informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and 'straighten our [sic] Hamas' if Hamas continues to act badly," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.
- 'Very, very fragile' -
"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," Vance said of disarming Hamas.
Vance also said that US troops would not be deployed in Gaza but that the United States would take part in "useful coordination".
Hamas's future is a key point of contention, with the ceasefire agreement ruling out a role for the group in Gaza.
Israel has accused Hamas of breaching the terms of the ceasefire, though the group has repeatedly said it is committed to the agreement.
But it has resisted the idea of disarmament and moved to reassert its control on the streets of Gaza since the start of the truce, clashing with armed clans.
The group denied any involvement in Sunday's deadly violence in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
Israel responded to its soldiers' deaths with an intense wave of bombings that the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said killed 45 Palestinians.
"The only thing stopping Israel from further destroying Gaza is Trump," said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Netanyahu is "saying certain things to make Trump happy, but he's doing other things, and the ceasefire is very, very fragile", she told AFP.
Zonszein added that Hamas's future was "still very much something that Israelis are concerned" about.
Despite the clashes, Hamas has continued to hand over the remains of hostages in small numbers.
The group's armed wing said it would return the bodies of two more hostages exhumed on Tuesday, with the handover taking place at 1800 GMT.
Militants have so far released 13 of the 28 hostage bodies pledged to be returned under the deal, but Hamas has said the search is hampered by the level of destruction in the territory.
The Red Cross said it facilitated on Tuesday the transfer of the bodies of 15 Palestinians from Israel to Gaza as part of the deal, taking the total to 165.
- Hamas confidence -
Hamas's Gaza leader Khalil al-Hayya, in Cairo for talks with Egypt and Qatar, issued a statement expressing confidence the truce would hold.
"What we heard from the mediators and from the US President reassures us that the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has ended," Al-Hayya said.
The war, triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 68,229 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers credible.
The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.
Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
B.A.Bauwens--JdB
