US vice president JD Vance visits Israel to shore up fragile ceasefire in Gaza

JD Vance has arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel (Nathan Howard/pool photo via AP)

US vice president JD Vance has arrived in Israel to shore up the fragile US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza that has teetered over the past few days following a burst of deadly violence and questions over how to move forward with the plan for cementing a long-term peace.

Also on Tuesday, Israel said it has identified the body of a hostage that was released by Palestinian militants overnight, while the chief Hamas negotiator said the group remains determined to implement the ceasefire agreement to end the two-year war.

Mr Vance, who is accompanied by his wife Usha, will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is expected to stay in the region until Thursday.

His visit follows that of two top White House envoys. After his arrival, Mr Vance held a working meeting at the airport with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump ’s former White House adviser and son-in-law.

A Palestinian man carries a box of food (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)

Mr Vance is to hold a news conference on Tuesday evening in Jerusalem and is also expected to meet families of hostages whose bodies are still being held in Gaza and some of the living hostages released by the militants last week.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner met in Tel Aviv with nine hostages who were released from captivity last week.

Israel confirmed that Hamas released the body of Tal Haimi, who was killed in the Hamas-led attack on October 7 2023 that ignited the war.

He was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on the Gaza border. The 42-year-old was a fourth-generation resident of the kibbutz and part of its emergency response team. He had four children, including one born after the attack.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel is still waiting for Hamas to turn over the remains of 15 deceased hostages. Thirteen bodies have been released since the ceasefire began.

Hamas later said it has recovered the remains of two more hostages and planned to hand them over on Tuesday evening.

The Gaza Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, said that Israel transferred the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza as part of the ceasefire. The International Committee of the Red Cross handed over the bodies to the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, it said.

JD Vance and his wife Usha arrive at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv (Nathan Howard/pool photo via AP)

The new arrivals brought the number of bodies Israel has sent back to Gaza to 165 since the exchanges started earlier this month, according to the health ministry.

After trading strikes earlier this week, Hamas negotiators reiterated that the group is committed to ensuring the war “ends once and for all”.

“From the day we signed the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement, we were determined and committed to seeing it through to the end,” Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who is in Cairo, told Egypt’s Al-Qahera News television on Monday.

He said the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, hosted by Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and US President Donald Trump, represented “an international will declaring the war in Gaza is over”.

Mr al-Hayya said Hamas received assurances from mediators and Mr Trump that “give us confidence that the war has ended for good”.

He said Israel has complied with aid deliveries in the crossings according to the agreement but asked mediators to pressure Israel to deliver more shelter items and medical supplies before the weather changes.

Palestinians pray over the bodies of people who were killed in an Israeli military strike (Abdel Kareem Hana/AP)

Meanwhile, the head of Egypt’s intelligence agency travelled to Israel on Tuesday to meet Israeli officials and Mr Witkoff over the implementations of the ceasefire, according to Egyptian media.

On Sunday, Israel’s military said militants had fired at troops, killing two Israeli soldiers in areas of Rafah in southern Gaza that are under Israeli control as per agreed-on ceasefire lines.

Retaliatory strikes by Israel killed 45 Palestinians, according to the strip’s Health Ministry, which says a total of 80 people have been killed since the ceasefire took effect.

Similar strikes occurred on Monday in Gaza City and Khan Younis, where Israel said militants had crossed the yellow ceasefire line and posed an “immediate threat” to its troops.

The Israeli military said on Monday it was using concrete barriers and painted poles to more clearly delineate the so-called yellow line in Gaza where troops have withdrawn to. It said several instances of violence have occurred.