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US Vice President JD Vance was in Israel on Tuesday to shore up a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal, as President Donald Trump piled more pressure on Hamas over the agreement he spearheaded. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were in Tel Aviv, where they met Israeli hostages released by Hamas after two years of captivity in Gaza.”Welcome to Israel, Vice President Vance,” Israel’s foreign ministry posted on social media. “Together, the Promised Land and The Land of the Free, can secure a better future, including the release of the remaining 15 hostages.” Vance met Witkoff and Kushner on Tuesday, reporters said, and was due to also meet US military experts monitoring the truce. According to Israeli media reports he will meet Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday in Jerusalem.After Israel said Hamas killed two soldiers on Sunday and accused the group of stalling the handover of hostages’ bodies, it unleashed a wave of strikes on the territory — later saying it had “renewed enforcement” of the ceasefire.The United States is now redoubling efforts to cement the fragile Gaza deal Trump helped broker.Trump said that allied nations in the Middle East were prepared to send troops into Gaza to confront Hamas if it did not cease alleged violations of his peace plan.”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’ -Trump says he believes the deal is still holding and that Hamas militants understand what will happen if they breach it. “They’ll be eradicated, and they know that,” he told reporters at the White House on Monday.Hamas has denied any knowledge of Sunday’s deadly violence in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.Israel responded after the soldiers’ deaths with an intense wave of bombings 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, senior analyst on Israel for the International Crisis Group (ICG).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 said that Hamas’s future was “still very much something that Israelis are concerned with”.”As far as Israelis are concerned, they’re happy the hostages are out. They want to stabilise… But they also are scared that Hamas is still standing,” she said.- Challenges, opportunities -Both sides say they are committed to the truce despite the weekend’s violence, and Hamas’ 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 handed over 13 of the 28 hostage bodies pledged to be returned under the deal, but Hamas has warned the search is hampered by the level of destruction in the territory.Netanyahu’s office has said Israel “will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them”.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.The ceasefire, which went into effect on October 10 also proposed an ambitious roadmap for Gaza’s future, but its implementation has quickly faced challenges.On Monday, Netanyahu — who is under pressure from hardliners in his government to abandon the deal and resume the fighting — said he and Vance would discuss “the security challenges we face and the diplomatic opportunities before us”.- Egypt spy chief in Israel -Egypt’s intelligence head Hassan Rashad was also in Israel on Tuesday to reinforce the truce, according to Netanyahu’s office and Egyptian state-linked media. US ally and fellow truce mediator Qatar accused Israel of what its leader called the “continued violation” of the now 11-day-old ceasefire.  “We reiterate our condemnation of all Israeli violations and practices in Palestine,” Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told legislators.Hamas’ Gaza leader, in Cairo for talks with Egypt and Qatar, issued a statement expressing confidence the truce will hold. “What we heard from the mediators and from the US President reassures us that the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has ended,” Khalil al-Hayya said. The war, triggered by Hamas’ 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’ 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

US President Donald Trump warned Hamas it will be wiped out if it breaches the Gaza ceasefire, as Vice President JD Vance travelled to Israel on Tuesday to shore up the fragile truce.Vance was due to land and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were already in Tel Aviv, where they were meeting Israeli hostages released by Hamas after two years of captivity in Gaza.The vice president was expected to meet Witkoff, Kushner and US military experts monitoring the truce. According to Israeli media reports he will meet Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday in Jerusalem.After Israel said Hamas killed two soldiers on Saturday and accused the group of stalling the handover of hostages’ bodies, Washington has redoubled efforts to cement the fragile Gaza deal Trump helped to broker.- ‘Continued violation’ -Trump says he believes the deal is still holding and that the Palestinian militant group understands what will happen if they breach it. “They’ll be eradicated, and they know that,” he told reporters at the White House.US ally and fellow truce mediator Qatar, meanwhile, accused Israel of what its leader called the “continued violation” of the now 11-day-old ceasefire.  “We reiterate our condemnation of all Israeli violations and practices in Palestine, particularly the transformation of the Gaza Strip into an area unfit for human life,” Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told legislators.Hamas has denied any knowledge of Saturday morning’s deadly clash in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.Israel responded after the soldiers’ deaths with an intense wave of bombings the territory’s health ministry said had left 45 Palestinians dead.Hamas’s Gaza leader, in Cairo for talks with deal mediator Egypt and Qatar, issued a statement expressing confidence the truce will hold.    “What we heard from the mediators and from the US President reassures us that the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has ended,” Khalil al-Hayya said. Hayya insisted Hamas was serious about retrieving the bodies of the remaining 15 hostages held in Gaza, but warned that the search has been hampered by the level of destruction in the territory two years of Israeli bombardment.”We face extreme difficulty in recovering the bodies and continue our efforts; we have said that we need advanced heavy equipment for search and recovery,” he said.Both sides say they are committed to the US-backed truce despite the weekend’s violence, and Israel confirmed Hamas handed over the body of a deceased hostage on Monday, taking the total to 13 of the 28 it had pledged to return.Netanyahu’s office said: “We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them.”On Monday, Netanyahu — who is under pressure from hardliners in his government to abandon the deal and resume the fighting — said he and Vance would discuss “the security challenges we face and the diplomatic opportunities before us”.- ‘Yellow Line’ -The ceasefire, which went into effect on October 10, established an outline for hostage and prisoner exchanges, and proposed an ambitious roadmap for Gaza’s future. But its implementation has quickly faced challenges.Under Trump’s 20-point plan, Israeli forces have withdrawn beyond the so-called “Yellow Line”, which soldiers are busy marking with painted concrete blocks.This leaves them in control of around half of Gaza, including the territory’s borders, but not its main cities.The war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 68,216 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.

US President Donald Trump threatened to “eradicate” Hamas if it breached its ceasefire deal with Israel, as Vice President JD Vance travelled to the region Tuesday to bolster the fragile Gaza truce.The Trump administration has redoubled its efforts to cement the fragile Gaza peace agreement it helped to broker, after Israel accused Hamas of stalling the hand-over of hostages’ bodies and deadly violence flared up in the territory over the weekend.”We made a deal with Hamas that they’re going to be very good, they’re going to behave, they’re going to be nice,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “If they’re not, we’re going to go and we’re going to eradicate them, if we have to. They’ll be eradicated, and they know that.”Both sides have said they are committed to the US-backed truce despite the weekend’s violence, and Israel confirmed that Hamas handed over the body of a hostage on Monday, taking the total to 13 of the 28 it had pledged to return.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Hamas had to make good on its commitment to return the remains of all the hostages in order to implement the ceasefire agreement.”We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them,” the statement said.Hamas has said it needs more time and technical assistance to complete the recovery of the bodies.Vance was set to arrive in Israel on Tuesday, where Netanyahu said he would hold discussions on “two things… the security challenges we face and the diplomatic opportunities before us”.- Rocky deal implementation  -The ceasefire, which went into effect on October 10, established an outline for hostage and prisoner exchanges, and proposed an ambitious roadmap for Gaza’s future. But its implementation has quickly faced challenges.Israel carried out dozens of strikes in Gaza on Sunday using 153 tons (337,307 pounds) of explosives, according to Netanyahu, targeting Hamas after two Israeli soldiers were killed in the territory’s south. Gaza’s civil defence agency said the strikes killed at least 45 people across the territory.The Israeli prime minister accused the militant group of “a blatant violation” of the ceasefire, an accusation it denied.Trump said American forces would not be involved against Hamas, but added that “Israel would go in in two minutes, if I asked them to go in.”But right now, we haven’t said that. We’re going to give it a little chance,” he added.The Gazan civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said four people were also killed by Israeli gunfire on Monday in Gaza City. Israel’s military said it had fired at militants who crossed a ceasefire line.Under Trump’s 20-point plan, Israeli forces have withdrawn beyond the so-called “Yellow Line” — which leaves them in control of around half of Gaza, including the territory’s borders, but not its main cities.Israeli troops have fired on Gazans they say were approaching their new positions several times since the ceasefire was declared.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.- ‘Renewed enforcement’  -The military said that after carrying out Sunday’s strikes in response to the attack on its soldiers, it had “renewed enforcement of the ceasefire” but would “respond firmly to any violation”.Hamas denied knowledge of any attack, with one official accusing Israel of fabricating “pretexts” to resume the war.The war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 68,216 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations 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.