That came after US President Donald Trump warned that allied nations in the region would invade Gaza to wipe out Hamas if it failed to comply with the truce
“What we’ve seen the past week gives me great optimism the ceasefire is going to hold,” Vance said during a press conference in Kiryat Gat, a city in southern Israel where a US-led mission is monitoring the Gaza ceasefire.
“I think that everybody should be proud of where we are today. It’s going to require constant effort. It’s going to require constant monitoring and supervision,” he added.
Vance is to meet Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday in Jerusalem.
There have been tensions over the implementation of the ceasefire, with Hamas saying it needs time and technical assistance to find the remaining dead Israeli hostages under the rubble of the Gaza Strip.
And, on Sunday, there was the worst outbreak of violence since the start of the truce. Two Israeli soldiers were killed, triggering a wave of retaliatory air strikes.
Before Vance’s arrival, Trump gave a stark warning to Hamas.
“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
Opening a joint US-Israeli Civil-Military Coordination Center in southwest Israel, Vance endorsed this, but played down Israeli pressure for a firm deadline.
“I’m not going to do what the President of the United States has thus far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it, because a lot of this stuff is difficult,” he said.
Vance also said that US troops would not be deployed in Gaza but that the United States would take part in “useful coordination.”
Hamas’s future is a key point of contention, with the ceasefire agreement ruling out a role for the group in Gaza.
Israel has accused Hamas of breaching the terms of the ceasefire, though the group has repeatedly said it is committed to the agreement.
