Vance and Netanyahu meet to push Gaza ceasefire agreement forward

TEL AVIV, Israel, October 24 ------ As top U.S. officials and envoys visit Israel this week to try to bolster the Gaza ceasefire agreement, Vice President JD Vance sought to publicly ease concerns within Israel that the Trump administration was dictating terms to its closest ally in the region.

“We don’t want in Israel a vassal state, and that’s not what Israel is. We want a partnership, we want an ally,” Vance said beside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in response to a reporter’s question about whether Israel was becoming a “protectorate” of the U.S.

Netanyahu expressed similar sentiments moments earlier, even as he acknowledged that the allies have differences of opinion as they seek to push forward with a ceasefire agreement that is less than two weeks old. “One week, they say that Israel controls the United States. A week later, they say the United States controls Israel. This is hogwash. We have a partnership, an alliance of partners who share common values, common goals,” Netanyahu said.

One area of concern within Israel is that an international security force in Gaza — envisioned as part of a second phase of the ceasefire — could limit the Israeli military’s ability to take action in the territory if it perceives a threat to its own security.

Vance acknowledged that the road to a long-term peace is strewn with huge hurdles, but at the same time he tried to maintain the buoyant tone he sounded Tuesday on his arrival to Israel. “We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel. That’s not easy,” Vance said. “There’s a lot of work to do, but I feel very optimistic about where we are.”

Vance also met with relatives of Israeli hostages. He was accompanied by U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Netanyahu in Israel on Friday.

Questions abound on next steps of ceasefire plan

Uncertainty remains over the deployment of an international security force in Gaza and who will govern the territory. Vance said Tuesday officials are brainstorming on the composition of the security force, mentioning Turkey and Indonesia as countries expected to contribute troops. Britain is also sending a small contingent of military officers to Israel to assist in monitoring the ceasefire.

As Vance's meetings got underway, Israel said it had completed the identification of the bodies of two more hostages that were handed over by the Red Cross to the Israeli military in Gaza on Tuesday. Authorities identified the deceased hostages as Arie Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar, who were killed in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants, which triggered the two-year war.

Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned to Israel. Another 13 still need to be recovered in Gaza and handed over, a key element of the ceasefire agreement. In Gaza, the Health Ministry said Wednesday that Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians. The Red Cross confirmed that it facilitated the transfer in line with the ceasefire agreement. That brings the total number of the bodies of Palestinians returned to Gaza for burial to 195, only 57 of whom have been identified by their families, according to the Hamas-run ministry.

Source: mb.com.ph