Vance says Gaza ceasefire going ‘better than I expected’ during Israel trip

US vice president JD Vance has visited a newly opened centre in Israel for civilian and military co-operation that he called central to keeping the US-backed ceasefire plan for Gaza on track.

Mr Vance, who visited with top US envoys, said the fragile ceasefire is going “better than I expected.”

US envoy Steve Witkoff added that “we are exceeding where we thought we would be at this time”.

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

Mr Vance was meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials and is expected to stay in the region until Thursday.

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and one of the architects of the ceasefire agreement, is also in Israel.

Also on Tuesday, Hamas said it had returned the remains of two more hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza.

Mr Vance urged a “little bit of patience” amid growing Israeli frustration with Hamas’s 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,” Mr Vance said. “It’s just a reason to counsel in favour of a little bit of patience.”

He added that “a lot of this work is very hard” as he faced questions over next steps, and he urged flexibility.

The ceasefire took effect on October 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. Mr Trump has made clear he wants it to succeed.

The head of Egypt’s intelligence agency, Major General Hassan Rashad, travelled to Israel on Tuesday to meet Mr Netanyahu, Mr Witkoff and others over the ceasefire’s implementation, according to Mr Netanyahu’s office.

The meetings highlight the urgency of launching negotiations for the second phase of the US plan, which must address issues such as the disarmament of Hamas and the governance of post-war Gaza.

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.

Israel confirmed that Palestinian militants had released the body of Tal Haimi, who was killed in the Hamas-led attack on October 7 2023 that ignited the war.

He was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak. The 42-year-old was part of its 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 remains of 15 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.

International organisations 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 Programme (WFP) 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 is still 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.

On Monday, Hamas said its security forces raided shops across Gaza, closing at least 10 shops and warehouses, and forced merchants to lower prices. Hamas also has imposed more order, allowing aid trucks to move safely and halting looting of deliveries.

Meanwhile, 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.

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

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

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 UN agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

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