Vance visits Israel and says ceasefire in Gaza is going better than expected

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KIRYAT GAT, Israel (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance and other envoys projected optimism Tuesday about Gaza 's fragile ceasefire agreement, calling progress better than anticipated as they visited a new center in Israel for civilian and military cooperation.

Vance noted flareups of violence in recent days but said the ceasefire that began on Oct. 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 doesn’t cooperate, it will be “obliterated.”

Jared Kushner, 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."

Vance is expected to stay in the region until Thursday and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials.

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

Vance urged a “little bit of patience” amid Israeli frustration with Hamas’ pace of the returns.

“Some of these hostages are buried under thousands of pounds of rubble. Some of the hostages, nobody even knows where they are,” Vance said.

As he faced journalists' questions over the ceasefire's next steps, he said “a lot of this work is very hard" and urged flexibility.

“Once we’ve got to a point where both the Gazans and our Israeli friends can have some measure of security, then we’ll worry about what the long-term governance of Gaza is," he said. "Let’s focus on security, rebuilding, giving people some food and medicine.”

Although some 200 U.S. troops were recently sent to Israel, Vance emphasized that they would not be on the ground in Gaza. But he said officials are beginning to "conceptualize what that international security force would look like" for the territory.

He mentioned Turkey and Indonesia as countries expected to participate. The flags of Jordan, Germany, Britain and Denmark were on the stage where he spoke.

The ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10. While it has been tested by Sunday's fighting and mutual accusations of violations, both Israel and Hamas have said they are committed to the deal.

The head of Egypt’s intelligence agency, Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad, traveled to Israel on Tuesday to meet with Netanyahu, Witkoff and others about the ceasefire, Netanyahu’s office said.

Hamas negotiators reiterated that the group is committed to ensuring the war “ends once and for all.”

Israel confirmed that Palestinian militants had released the body of Tal Haimi, who was killed in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. The 42-year-old was part of his kibbutz' emergency response team and had four children, including one born after the attack.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel is waiting for Hamas to turn over the bodies of 15 remaining hostages. Thirteen others have been turned over.

Under the deal, Israel is releasing 15 Palestinian bodies for the remains of each dead hostage, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-run government. It said Israel had transferred another 15 on Tuesday, for a total of 165 since earlier this month.

So far, only 32 of the bodies have been identified, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

International organizations said they were scaling up humanitarian aid entering Gaza, while Hamas-led security forces launched a crackdown against what it called price gouging by private merchants.

The World Food Program said it had sent more than 530 trucks into Gaza in the past 10 days, enough to feed nearly half a million people for two weeks. That's well under the 500 to 600 that entered daily before the war.

The WFP also said it had reinstated 26 distribution points and hopes to scale up to its previous 145 points across Gaza as soon as possible.

Residents said prices for essential goods soared on Sunday after militants killed two Israeli soldiers and Israel responded with strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians. Israel also threatened to halt humanitarian aid.

At a market in the central city of Deir al-Balah, a 25-kilogram (55-pound) package of flour was selling for more than $70 on Sunday, up from about $12 shortly after the ceasefire. By Tuesday, the price was around $30.

Mohamed al-Faqawi, a Khan Younis resident, accused merchants of taking advantage of the perilous security situation. “They are exploiting us,” he said.

On Monday, Hamas said its security forces raided shops across Gaza, closing some and forcing merchants to lower prices. Hamas also has allowed aid trucks to move safely and halted looting of deliveries.

Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza’s private truckers’ union, said there was no stealing aid since the ceasefire started.

But other significant challenges remain as Gaza's financial system is in tatters. With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable, people pay exorbitant commissions to a network of cash brokers to get money for daily expenses.

On Tuesday, dozens of people in Deir al-Balah spent hours in line at the Bank of Palestine hoping to access their money but were turned away.

“Without having the bank open and without money, it does not matter that the prices (in the market) have dropped,” said Kamilia Al-Ajez.

A senior health official in Gaza said some bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel bore “evidence of torture” and called for a United Nations-launched investigation.

Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, the ministry's general director, said in on social media late Monday that some had evidence of being bound with ropes and metal shackles, blindfolds, deep wounds, abrasions, burns and crushed limbs.

It was not immediately clear if any of the bodies had been prisoners; they are returned without identifications or details on how they died. The bodies could include Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli custody or bodies taken out of Gaza by Israeli troops during the war.

The Israel Prisons Service denied that prisoners had been mistreated, saying it had followed legal procedures and provided medical care and “adequate living conditions.”

Israeli hostages released from Gaza have also reported metal shackles and harsh conditions, including frequent beatings and starvation.

In the initial 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as hostages.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Tel Aviv. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war