The day so far
At a press conference in Israel, the US vice-president JD Vance referred to Hamas as a “terrorist organisation” and said the Israeli army was “defending itself” throughout the conflict. He said there is “a lot of work left to do” and that it is going to take a “long time” and thanked the Israeli government.
Vance said he believes the peace plan is going to last and is “durable” but repeated Trump’s claims that, if Hamas does not cooperate, it will be “obliterated”. “A lot of this stuff is difficult, a lot of this stuff is unpredictable,” said Vance. “We don’t yet have the international security force set up.”
Vance said that unless Hamas disarms, “very bad things are going to happen”. But he declined to put a deadline on Hamas disarming, adding: “I don’t think it’s actually advisable to say this has to be done in a week.”
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said there had been “surprisingly strong communication” between the United Nations and Israel over humanitarian aid. He echoed Vance’s comments about people “getting a little hysterical about supposed incursions” of the ceasefire.
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East who has been at the heart of negotiations for the ceasefire, said “we are learning so much here” and that the peace deal is going to be used in other conflicts to end war. Witkoff said he met with freed hostages today and that “there was a lot of tears in the room”.
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 still well under the 500 to 600 that entered daily before the war.
Israel urged Canadian prime minister Mark Carney to drop his pledge to honour the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to the country. Carney was asked in an interview with Bloomberg published last week if he would fulfil the commitment of his predecessor Justin Trudeau to arrest Netanyahu on war crimes charges if he came to Canada, to which he replied “yes”.
Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman plan to meet at the White House on 18 November, as the wealthy Gulf nation seeks a defence pact with the US, CBS is reporting, citing sources.
The Gaza health ministry said that Israel has transferred the bodies of 15 further Palestinian people to Gaza as part of the ceasefire. The International Committee of the Red Cross handed over the bodies to the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, it said.
Hamas’ armed wing said it would hand over the bodies of two hostages it recovered on Tuesday in Gaza at 9pm (1800 GMT), as part of the group’s ceasefire agreement with Israel. Hamas has so far handed over the bodies of 13 of 28 deceased hostages.
Gaza’s health ministry said in its latest update that the bodies of 13 people were brought to hospitals across the territory in the last 24 hours. It said eight people had been injured over this time period. The health ministry, whose figures the UN finds credible, says that it means at least 68,229 Palestinian people have been killed and 170,369 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023.
Maintaining the Gaza ceasefire is critical for delivering aid in the territory, the United Nations has said, repeating a call for all border crossings to be opened. “Sustaining the ceasefire is vital; really it’s the only way we can save lives and push back on the famine in the north of Gaza,” Abeer Etefa, Middle East spokesperson for the UN’s World Food Programme, told reporters in Geneva.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the head of Egyptian intelligence, Hassan Rashad, in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the prime minister’s office said. During the meeting, it said, they discussed advancing Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, Israel-Egypt relations and strengthening the peace between the two countries.
France’s president Emmanuel Macron called for aid routes into Gaza to be reopened as a matter of “absolute urgency”. “The situation in Gaza remains very fragile,” Macron told a news conference in Ljubljana alongside Slovenian prime minister Robert Golob.
The EU has been criticised for pausing sanctions against Israel’s government in response to Donald Trump’s peacemaking efforts in the Middle East, as the fragile ceasefire came under threat. After meeting EU foreign ministers on Monday, the European foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, announced a pause on efforts to suspend preferential trade with Israel and sanctions against people responsible for fuelling the conflict on both sides.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to appoint a new national security adviser, replacing Tzachi Hanegbi, Israeli media reported on Tuesday.
US vice-president JD Vance speaking earlier this afternoon during a media briefing at the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in Kiryat Gat, southern Israel.
What US vice-president JD Vance said at press conference in Israel
At a press conference in Israel, the US vice-president JD Vance referred to Hamas as a “terrorist organisation” and said the Israeli army was “defending itself” throughout the conflict. He said there is “a lot of work left to do” and that it is going to take a “long time” and thanked the Israeli government.
Vance said he believes the peace plan is going to last and is “durable” but repeated Trump’s claims that, if Hamas does not cooperate, it will be “obliterated”. “A lot of this stuff is difficult, a lot of this stuff is unpredictable,” said Vance. “We don’t yet have the international security force set up.”
Vance said that unless Hamas disarms, “very bad things are going to happen”. But he declined to put a deadline on Hamas disarming, adding: “I don’t think it’s actually advisable to say this has to be done in a week.”
He attacked the American and western media and said there is a “weird attitude” and “almost a desire to root for failure”. He seemed to be referring to reporting of Israeli attacks on Gaza during the ceasefire.
“Everybody has a role to play here”, said Vance, but said the US will not force anything on Israel when it comes to foreign troops on the ground. He told journalists that there will moments where it looks like things “aren’t going particularly well” and will require monitoring.
Vance said a lot of Gulf countries want to have “normalised relations” with Israel, and added that “if we get this right … it will be a domino that leads to peace all across the region”. He said his visit had been in the planning for months and is unrelated to events of the past 48 hours. “I wanted to just see how things are going,” he said
Donald Trump wants Iran to be prosperous and to have good relations with the Iranians, Vance says, but added that it cannot have a nuclear weapon. Wrapping up the press conference, Vance said Jesus Christ had the nickname “the prince of peace” and said, “with prayers, God’s providence and a great team … I think we are going to get it done”.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said there had been “surprisingly strong communication” between the United Nations and Israel over humanitarian aid. He echoed Vance’s comments about people “getting a little hysterical about supposed incursions” of the ceasefire.
Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East who has been at the heart of negotiations for the ceasefire, said “we are learning so much here” and that the peace deal is going to be used in other conflicts to end war. Witkoff said he met with freed hostages today and that “there was a lot of tears in the room”.
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Donald Trump wants Iran to be prosperous and to have good relations with the Iranians, Vance says, but adds that it cannot have a nuclear weapon.
Wrapping up the press conference, Vance says Jesus Christ had the nickname “the prince of peace” and says, “with prayers, God’s providence and a great team … I think we are going to get it done”.
And that’s that. The press conference is finished.
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Vance says a lot of Gulf countries want to have “normalised relations” with Israel, adding that “if we get this right … it will be a domino that leads to peace all across the region”.
He says his visit had been in the planning for months and is unrelated to events of the past 48 hours.
“I wanted to just see how things are going,” he says.
However, he says he doesn’t know what the ultimate governing authority in Gaza looks like.
Vance insists Gaza ceasefire plan 'durable' as he threatens Hamas with obliteration
Vance says he believes the peace plan is going to last and is “durable” but repeats Trump’s claims that, if Hamas does not cooperate, it will be “obliterated”.
“A lot of this stuff is difficult, a lot of this stuff is unpredictable,” says Vance. “We don’t yet have the international security force set up.”
He says in order for the peace plan to succeed, it needs time to work and cannot be set up “in a week”.
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Vance says US won't force Israel into accepting foreign troops
“Everybody has a role to play here”, says Vance, but says the US will not force anything on Israel when it comes to foreign troops on the ground.
He tells journalists that there will moments where it looks like things “aren’t going particularly well” and will require monitoring.
However, he says “right now I feel very optimistic” but cannot say “100% whether it is actually going to work”.
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Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is now at the podium and speaking. He says there has been “surprisingly strong communication” between the United Nations and Israel over humanitarian aid.
He says he echoes Vance’s comments about people “getting a little hysterical about supposed incursions” of the ceasefire.
Speaking at a civilian-military cooperation centre, Kusher says other countries want to get on board and become part of the de-escalation process in Gaza.
“Everyone believes it is possible to create something better in Gaza,” he says. “I do believe a great outcome is possible.”
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Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East who has been at the heart of negotiations for the ceasefire, is now speaking.
He says “we are learning so much here” and says the peace deal is going to be used in other conflicts to end war.
Witkoff says he met with freed hostages today and said “there was a lot of tears in the room”.
He says:
I didn’t see any victims in that room, I saw strong people.
US vice-president JD Vance claims western media have 'desire to root for failure' amid Israel attacks on Gaza
Vance starts his press conference by referring to Hamas as a “terrorist organisation” and says the Israeli army was “defending itself” throughout the conflict.
He says there is “a lot of work left to do” and that it is going to take a “long time”, before thanking the Israeli government.
He is now attacking the American and western media and says there is a “weird attitude” and “almost a desire to root for failure”. He seems to be referring to reporting of Israeli attacks on Gaza during the ceasefire.
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US vice-president JD Vance is about to give a press conference in Israel, following his visit to the country today.
Vance was meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials and is expected to stay in the region until Thursday.
White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, president Donald Trump’s son-in-law, arrived Monday and Vance met with them upon landing.
Vance was also expected to meet with families of hostages whose remains are still in Gaza and some of the living hostages released last week. Witkoff and Kushner met with nine of them on Tuesday.
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 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.
Israel urged Canadian prime minister Mark Carney to drop his pledge to honour the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to the country.
Carney was asked in an interview with Bloomberg published last week if he would fulfil the commitment of his predecessor Justin Trudeau to arrest Netanyahu on war crimes charges if he came to Canada, to which he replied “yes”.
“We believe that prime minister Carney should, of course, reconsider this and welcome prime minister Netanyahu, the leader of the only Jewish state and democratic country in the Middle East, to Canada,” Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters.
The ICC issued arrest warrants last year for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.
Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman plan to meet at the White House on 18 November, as the wealthy Gulf nation seeks a defence pact with the US, CBS is reporting, citing sources.
Hamas' armed wing says it will hand over bodies of two hostages on Tuesday evening
Hamas’ armed wing said it would hand over the bodies of two hostages it recovered on Tuesday in Gaza at 9pm (1800 GMT), as part of the group’s ceasefire agreement with Israel.
Hamas has so far handed over the bodies of 13 of 28 deceased hostages.
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Trump vows a 'brutal' end to Hamas if group 'continues to act badly'
In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump said that numerous American “allies” in the Middle East would “welcome the opportunity” – at his “request” – to enter Gaza “with a heavy force” and “straighten” out Hamas if the militant group “continues to act badly” in ways he says are in violation of his ceasefire agreement.
In the social media post, Trump said:
The love and spirit for the Middle East has not been seen like this in a thousand years! It is a beautiful thing to behold! I told these countries, and Israel, “NOT YET!” There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right. If they do not, an end to Hamas will be FAST, FURIOUS, & BRUTAL! I would like to thank all of those countries that called to help.
The Palestinian news agency said Israel had violated the ceasefire 80 times and killed at least 80 Palestinian people in the past 11 days. Israel has accused Hamas of delaying the return of hostages’ bodies, which it says is a violation of the agreement.
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Death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza reaches 68,229, says health ministry
Gaza’s health ministry said in its latest update that the bodies of 13 people were brought to hospitals across the territory in the last 24 hours. It said eight people had been injured over this time period.
The health ministry, whose figures the UN finds credible, says that it means at least 68,229 Palestinian people have been killed and 170,369 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023.
Most of the people killed in these Israeli attacks have been civilians, many of whom were women and children.
Reuters has an interesting summary of what will be discussed in the next phases of negotiation over the ceasefire.
A US-backed stabilisation force is meant to ensure security in Gaza. Its composition, role, chain of command, legal status and other issues are yet to be agreed.
The US has agreed to provide up to 200 troops to support the force without being deployed in Gaza itself. US officials have said they are also speaking to Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Azerbaijan to contribute.
Donald Trump wants Hamas and other factions to disarm and Gaza to be demilitarised. The group has never accepted this and says mediators have not yet officially started discussing the issue with it.
Gaza is to be governed by a transitional committee of apolitical Palestinian technocrats. The composition of this body has not been agreed. Hamas has accepted the formation of this body, but says it would have a role in approving it.
The panel would be supervised by a new international transitional body called the “Board of Peace” headed by Trump. Its formation, and the possible inclusion of former UK PM Tony Blair, is still to be agreed.
The phasing of further Israeli pull-backs is yet to be agreed, and will depend partly on Israel’s own assessment of how much of a threat Hamas still poses. Hamas says the war will only end when Israel has fully withdrawn.
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Israel transfers the bodies of 15 Palestinian people to Gaza, Red Cross says
The Gaza health ministry said that Israel has transferred the bodies of 15 further Palestinian people to Gaza as part of the ceasefire.
The International Committee of the Red Cross handed over the bodies to the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, it said.
The new arrivals brought the number of bodies Israel sent back to Gaza to 165 since the exchanges started earlier this month, according to the health ministry.
Some Palestinian doctors say the fact that many of the previously returned bodies were blindfolded and bound suggests they were tortured and then killed during their detention at Sde Teiman, a notorious Israeli jail.
You can read the report by my colleagues Lorenzo Tondo and Seham Tantesh here:
Under the Gaza ceasefire deal, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned. Israel confirmed that Hamas handed over the body of a 13th hostage – since identified as Tal Haimi – on Monday.
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Ceasefire vital for aid deliveries, says UN
Maintaining the Gaza ceasefire is critical for delivering aid in the territory, the United Nations has said, repeating a call for all border crossings to be opened.
“Sustaining the ceasefire is vital; really it’s the only way we can save lives and push back on the famine in the north of Gaza,” Abeer Etefa, Middle East spokesperson for the UN’s World Food Programme, told reporters in Geneva.
“We know it’s a fragile ceasefire; the most important thing is that it lasts.”
Etefa said that since the ceasefire came into force, 530 WFP trucks had crossed into Gaza, bringing in more than 6,700 tonnes of food, which she said was “enough for close to half a million people for two weeks”.
About 750 tonnes a day are now coming through, which, although more than before the ceasefire, remains well below WFP’s target of about 2,000 tonnes daily.
“Convoys are pushing through, food is getting to the warehouses and distributions are happening in an organised and dignified manner,” she said.
She said WFP now had 26 food distribution points open in Gaza – up from five on Friday, but still far short of the 145 it hopes to run throughout the territory. Most are in the south and centre of the territory.
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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the head of Egyptian intelligence, Hassan Rashad, in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the prime minister’s office said.
During the meeting, it said, they discussed advancing Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, Israel-Egypt relations and strengthening the peace between the two countries.
Rashad will also meet with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who is currently in Israel, Egyptian state-linked news outlet Extra News reported.
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Macron says aid routes into Gaza need to be reopened as a matter of 'absolute urgency'
France’s President Emmanuel Macron called for aid routes into Gaza to be reopened as a matter of “absolute urgency”.
“The situation in Gaza remains very fragile,” Macron told a news conference in Ljubljana alongside Slovenian prime minister Robert Golob.
Macron added:
We wish to remain committed along with our European, Arab and US partners to immediately obtain – and this is a matter of absolute urgency – the reopening of humanitarian sites and routes so that aid, food and basic necessities can be brought to the population.
Israel’s crossings with Gaza remained open for humanitarian aid on Monday, though the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza remained closed.
Aid entering Gaza falls way below of what was promised - Gaza's Government Media Office
Gaza’s Government Media Office has posted to Telegram to say only 986 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire began just over a week ago, out of the 6,600 trucks that it says were supposed to have arrived by Monday evening.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said:
The humanitarian convoys included (14) trucks loaded with cooking gas and (28) diesel trucks designated to operate bakeries, generators, hospitals and various vital sectors, in light of the severe shortage of these vital materials that the population directly depends on for daily life, after long months of siege and systematic destruction caused by the genocide committed by the “Israeli” occupation against our people in the Gaza Strip.
We note that the average number of trucks entering the Gaza Strip daily since the ceasefire began does not exceed (89) trucks out of (600) trucks that are supposed to enter daily, which reflects the continued policy of strangulation, starvation and humanitarian blackmail practiced by the occupation against more than (2.4) million citizens in Gaza.
Palestinian people in Gaza have received only a trickle of aid over recent months. During the war, Israel shut down entry and exit routes, largely blocking off food and medicine, which in turn caused a famine in large parts of Gaza. The US brokered ceasefire included a provision about a surge in humanitarian aid to Gaza.
JD Vance arrives in Israel amid efforts to shore up fragile ceasefire
US vice-president JD Vance has arrived in Israel with his wife, Usha.
Vance is expected to meet top US Middle East envoys and military experts monitoring the truce on Tuesday. He is expected to meet with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and president Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem tomorrow.
Vance will discuss the further implementation of the ceasefire during his visit and is set to push Netanyahu to start talks on long-term issues for a permanent end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
Egypt’s intelligence head Hassan Rashad will travel to Israel on Tuesday for a series of meetings with Israeli officials aimed at reinforcing the ceasefire, state-linked media reported.
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As we mentioned in the opening summary, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner arrived in Israel yesterday in a push to reinforce the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.
They have been pictured in a handout with recently released hostages:
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, has urged Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich to “fully embrace” the fragile ceasefire deal that came into effect earlier this month.
A readout of their meeting published yesterday said:
Today, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent met with Minister Bezalel Smotrich of Israel to reaffirm the strong ties between the United States and Israel.
Secretary Bessent encouraged Minister Smotrich to fully embrace President Trump’s landmark peace deal and thanked the minister for his leadership in Israel. The Secretary also underscored the historic return of the hostages, and noted the great potential for expansion of the Abraham Accords.
EU criticised for pausing sanctions on Israel
The EU has been criticised for pausing sanctions against Israel’s government in response to Donald Trump’s peacemaking efforts in the Middle East, as the fragile ceasefire came under threat.
After meeting EU foreign ministers on Monday, the European foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, announced a pause on efforts to suspend preferential trade with Israel and sanctions against people responsible for fuelling the conflict on both sides.
The context had changed since the measures were proposed last month, Kallas said. Noting “divergent views”, she said ministers had agreed: “We don’t move with the measures now, but we don’t take them off the table either because the situation is fragile.”
Two people who worked for the EU in senior roles, speaking separately, criticised the decision not to move forward with sanctions.
Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, a former EU representative to the Palestinian territories, told the Guardian that Kallas missed “the point” on legal accountability. “Sanctions are not just a measure to induce or coerce a third party to change or adjust its behaviour.
Restrictive measures are part of the tools the EU has given itself to react to breaches of both European and international law,” he said.
You can read the full story here:
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Here are some images sent to us over the newswires from Gaza:
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The Guardian’s diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, has explored the immediate challenges Qatar faces in this piece detailing the Gulf state’s centrality to ceasefire negotiations. Here is an extract:
It will be expected to use its experience mediating with Hamas going back as far as the George W Bush administration to persuade the Islamist militant group to disarm. That will require detailed and laborious work, including over the nature of the weapons, the future of the vast tunnel network under Gaza and the body to which Hamas fighters could decommission its weapons. Qatari money may be needed, and senior Hamas figures may be offered exile.
Second, Qatar may switch its attention to the PA, the Fatah-controlled government body’s promises of reforms and the elections for a new leadership in a year. Qatar may also not want to be drawn again into the ad hoc arrangement, encouraged previously by Netanyahu, that resulted in the Gulf state funnelling $4bn (£3bn) of aid into Gaza’s infrastructure and the territory’s poorest families from 2012.
Qatar’s emir condemns Israel's 'continued violation' of Gaza ceasefire
Speaking at the opening session of Shura council, Qatar’s legislative council, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani accused Israel of violating the 11-day-old ceasefire.
“We reiterate our condemnation of all Israeli violations and practices in Palestine, particularly the transformation of the Gaza Strip an area unfit for human life (and) the continued violation of the ceasefire,” he said.
“It is unfortunate that the international community remains incapable of enforcing respect when it comes to the tragedy of the Palestinian people.”
The Palestinian news agency said that Israel has violated the ceasefire 80 times and killed at least 80 Palestinian people since the deal went into effect.
Separately, Israel carried out an airstrike on a Hamas negotiating team in Qatar in September, which caused a huge diplomatic fallout. Qatar said at the time that it constituted a “blatant violation of all international laws and norms”.
Qatar, a close US ally, had been hosting negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza. Despite the deadly strike on its capital, it continues to play a key role as an intermediary, although relations with Israel are extremely fraught.
If the US-brokered ceasefire is not completely derailed, Qatar, which has hosted the Hamas political bureau since 2012, will likely be vital in trying to persuade the militant group to disarm, given its mediation experience.
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Israel says remains of another hostage returned from Gaza identified
Israel has confirmed that the remains of a hostage held in Gaza, returned by Hamas a day earlier, had been identified as those of Tal Haimi, who was killed on 7 October 2023.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said:
Following the completion of the identification process … representatives of (the army) informed the family of the hostage, Sergeant Major Tal Chaimi, of blessed memory, that their loved one had been returned to Israel and his identification had been completed.
Haimi, 41, commander of the Nir Yitzhak kibbutz defence militia, was killed in the Hamas-led 7 October attacks on southern Israel in 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. His body was taken to Gaza. He had four children, including one born after the attack.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Israel is still waiting for Hamas to turn over the remains of 15 deceased hostages. Thirteen bodies have been released since the ceasefire began.
Mediators understand that Hamas is having trouble locating all of the dead but the Israeli government believes the Palestinian militant group is making insufficient effort.
Hamas says the war’s devastation and Israeli military control of certain areas of Gaza have slowed the handover.
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Vance due in Israel as another hostage's body is returned
We are restarting our live coverage of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and the diplomatic efforts to try to maintain it.
The 11-day ceasefire in Gaza was seriously undermined on Sunday after Israel launched waves of deadly airstrikes and said it would cut off aid into the territory “until further notice” after a reported attack by Hamas, which the militant group denied being involved in.
In an attempt to ensure the ceasefire holds and to discuss the further implementation of the US brokered plan, US vice-president JD Vance is due to visit Israel later today.
In a speech on Monday to the Knesset, Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was vague about what he would speak about with Vance, whose diplomatic trip to Israel is set to last until Thursday.
“We will talk about two things, mainly the security challenges and the diplomatic opportunities we face,” Netanyahu said. “We will overcome the challenges and seize the opportunities.”
The fragile ceasefire agreement appeared back on track as Israel received the remains of another hostage in Gaza and Israel allowed humanitarian aid deliveries to resume to the territory devasted by relentless Israeli bombardments. A UN spokesperson did not say how much aid was getting in.
Israel had threatened on Sunday to halt aid shipments and its forces killed dozens of Palestinian people in airstrikes across Gaza after accusing Hamas militants of killing two soldiers. Israel later said it resumed enforcing the ceasefire that began on 10 October.
Donald Trump said on Monday that he would give Hamas a chance to “behave” or else be “eradicated”.
The US president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who helped broker the ceasefire agreement alongside Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators, met with Netanyahu yesterday.
It came as Hamas negotiators reportedly met with Egyptian mediators and Palestinian factions in Cairo. Negotiations about the second phase of the Trump plan will include discussions about the eventual withdrawal of the IDF and the disarmament of Hamas, something the militant group has expressed serious reservations about.
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