TEL AVIV: U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel on Tuesday to shore up the fragile U.S.-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 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.
Vance, who is accompanied by his wife, Usha Vance, will meet with 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 arrival, Vance held a working meeting at the airport with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump ’s former White House adviser and son-in-law.
Vance is to hold a news conference on Tuesday evening in Jerusalem and is also expected to meet with 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, Witkoff and 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 Oct. 7, 2023 attack 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.
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.
The new arrivals brought the number of bodies Israel sent back to Gaza to 165 since the exchanges started earlier this month, according to the health ministry.
Hamas says it’s committed to ending the war
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 late Monday.
