Gaza ceasefire shaken, JD Vance in Israel to get fragile truce back on track

US Vice-President JD Vance on Tuesday visited a newly opened centre in Israel for civilian and military cooperation that he called central to keeping the US-backed ceasefire plan for Gaza on track.

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Vance, who visited with top US envoys, said the fragile ceasefire is going “better than I expected.” Envoy Steve Witkoff added that “we are exceeding where we thought we would be at this time”

Vance, Witkoff and others are in Israel to shore up the ceasefire following a burst of deadly violence and questions over the plan for longterm peace.

Vance was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials and is expected to stay in the region until Thursday. Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’ son-in-law and one of the architects of the ceasefire agreement, is also in Israel. Also on Tuesday, Hamas said it has recovered the remains of two more hostages and planned to hand them over Tuesday evening.

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