US Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel on Tuesday as part of efforts to advance and bolster the Gaza ceasefire, amid reports that Washington is concerned that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could collapse the truce and return to war.
Vance, who is traveling with Second Lady Usha Vance, was greeted at Ben Gurion Airport by Justice Minister Yariv Levin, Israel’s envoy to the US Yechiel Leiter, and US Ambassador Mike Huckabee.
He then held a working lunch with the White House’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and adviser Jared Kushner, Vance’s office said.
Vance then headed to southern Israel to the Kiryat Gat area headquarters of the emerging US-international task force that will oversee the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire.
Vance was set to hold a press conference at 6 p.m. at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, according to the White House.
On Wednesday, he will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.
(From L) US Vice President JD Vance speaks with US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Israel’s ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter and Israel’s Justice Minister Yariv Levin upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on October 21, 2025 (Nathan HOWARD / POOL / AFP)
The Trump administration has redoubled its efforts to cement the fragile Gaza peace agreement it helped to broker, after Israel accused Hamas of stalling its handover of hostages’ bodies and deadly violence flared up in the territory over the weekend.
Vance’s arrival comes a day after US special envoy Steve Witkoff and top White House adviser Jared Kushner also arrived for talks about the ceasefire.
The Israel Police mounted a large-scale security operation for Vance that was expected to cause widespread traffic chaos due to road closures ahead of Vance’s arrival in Israel and during his stay.
From 1 p.m., Route 1 — the main highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv — was shut to motorists eastbound from the Ganot interchange. Route 6 — the main north-south highway — was closed southbound between the Daniel interchange and the Kiryat Gat junction.
Additionally, Route 35 was blocked westbound from the Kiryat Gat interchange to the Kiryat Gat Industrial Zone.
A member of the US Secret Service Counter Assault Team stages near the US vice president’s motorcade following his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on October 21, 2025. (Photo by Nathan HOWARD / POOL / AFP)
The entrance to Jerusalem was to be blocked from 3 p.m. Inside the capital at the same time, police were to close the Shazar Tunnel, Ben Tzvi Boulevard, Aza Street, Agron Street, Paris Square, Ha-Mekhes Square, and King David Street.
Until Thursday, police will periodically close Aza Street, Ramban Street, Ha-Nasi Street, Agron Street, Jabotinsky Street, King David Street, Ben Zvi Boulevard and Rabin Boulevard, as well as areas around the government quarter and the Old City.
Police asked the public to avoid entering those areas in private vehicles and use other routes instead.
US concern over Netanyahu and the ceasefire
Officials in Washington fear Netanyahu could end the Gaza ceasefire and return to the war against Hamas, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
There is growing worry in the administration that Netanyahu could actively work against the deal, the report said, citing several unnamed US officials. Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner are planning to pressure Israel not to undermine the accord as they visit the country, it said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a plenary session of the opening day of the winter session at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on October 20, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Israeli officials downplayed any tensions.
The Monday meeting between Netanyahu and Witkoff and Kushner was “very good,” a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
“It was about things that they agreed on from the very beginning,” said the official. “There was no disagreement there. Everything was really clear between the two parties.”
There was no photo released from the meeting and no comment from the US.
The New York Times report also said that there are talks with Turkey on sending a team specializing in body retrieval to help locate missing bodies of hostages in Gaza, with Hamas claiming it is having difficulty locating the 15 slain hostages still being held in the Strip. The return of all hostages held in Gaza, dead and alive, is a cornerstone of the US-brokered ceasefire, which began on October 10, halting two years of war.
Released hostages with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House adviser Jared Kushner on October 21, 2025 in Tel Aviv (Hostage and Missing Families Forum)
In response to an attack by Palestinian gunmen who killed two Israeli soldiers on Sunday in Rafah, on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line, Israel carried out deadly strikes across the Strip. Gaza’s civil defense agency, which is controlled by Hamas, said the strikes killed at least 45 people across the territory. Hamas figures do not distinguish between noncombatants and fighters.
Hamas claimed it did not order the attack on the soldiers and that it had been carried out by forces it was not in control of, an explanation Israel rejected.
For the time being, Trump believes that Hamas leaders are sincere in wanting to continue the ceasefire and negotiations for implementing its later stages, a source told the Times.
Trump on Monday warned Hamas that it would be “eradicated” if it breaches the Gaza deal, but said he would give the Palestinian terror group a chance to honor the truce.
He also reiterated his belief that the deadly attack on IDF troops in Gaza was not authorized by the terror group’s leadership.
The truce agreement was presented as the first stage of a larger peace plan pushed by Trump, which calls for Hamas to be disarmed and Gaza demilitarized and handed over to a transitional, “technocratic” government. No deal has been signed regarding the latter stages of the plan.
Qatar condemns Israeli truce violations, but not Hamas
Under Trump’s 20-point plan, Israeli forces have withdrawn beyond the so-called Yellow Line, which leaves them in control of around half of Gaza, including the territory’s borders, but not its main cities.
Israeli troops have fired on Gazans they say were approaching their new positions several times since the ceasefire was declared.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani condemned “Israeli violations of the ceasefire” in a speech on Tuesday opening a session of the Shura Council legislative body.
“We reiterate our condemnation of all Israeli violations and practices in Palestine, particularly the transformation of the Gaza Strip into an area unfit for human life [and] the continued violation of the ceasefire,” he said.
Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani addresses the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, September 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
The speech made no mention of Hamas actions breaching the ceasefire, including its deadly attack on Sunday. Israel has also said the terror group is in breach of the first stage of the agreement by not returning all the bodies of hostages from Gaza.
Al Thani further stated that the Palestinian issue is not “a question of terrorism but of occupation,” and emphasized that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to a genocide, a charge Israel denies.
The Qatari leader also once again condemned Israel’s September strike targeting the Hamas leadership in Doha. Israel has since apologized for the attack, which failed to kill top Hamas leaders.
The war was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led a devastating invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people. During the attack, terrorists abducted 251 people who were taken as hostages to Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 66,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
