Published: 8:31pm, 21 Oct 2025Updated: 2:16am, 22 Oct 2025
US Vice-President J.D. Vance and other envoys projected optimism on Tuesday about Gaza’s fragile ceasefire agreement, calling progress better than anticipated as they visited a new centre in Israel for civilian and military cooperation.
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Vance noted flare-ups of violence in recent days but said the ceasefire that began on October 10 is going “better than I expected” after two years of war between Israel and Hamas. The Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, added that “we are exceeding where we thought we would be at this time”.
They are in Israel as questions remain over the long-term plan for peace, including whether Hamas will disarm, when and how an international security force will deploy to Gaza and who will govern the territory after the war.
Vance tried to downplay any idea that his visit – his first as vice-president – was urgently arranged to keep the ceasefire in place. He said he feels “confident that we’re going to be in a place where this peace lasts”, but warned that if Hamas does not cooperate, it will be “obliterated”.
Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and one of the architects of the ceasefire agreement, noted its complexity: “Both sides are transitioning from two years of very intense warfare to now a peacetime posture.”
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Vance is expected to stay in the region until Thursday and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.
