Vance downplays concerns over ceasefire in visit to Israel as Trump administration officials privately worry

Vice President JD Vance arrives in Lod
By Alayna Treene, Eugenia Yosef, CNN
(CNN) — Vice President JD Vance downplayed concerns about the fragility of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire while speaking in Israel on Tuesday, even as some Trump administration officials are privately concerned the deal could fall apart, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
“What we’ve seen the past week gives me great optimism the ceasefire is going to hold,” Vance said at a news conference, adding, “I feel very optimistic. Can I say with 100% certainty that it’s going to work? No.”
Vance also declined to put a timeline on both the return of all Israeli hostage remains and Hamas’ disarmament, saying it will “take a little bit of time” and that security and humanitarian structures must be implemented in Gaza.
“If Hamas doesn’t comply with the deal, very bad things are going to happen. But I’m not going to do what the president of United States has thus far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it, because a lot of this stuff is difficult,” Vance said.
Vance’s presence in the region is meant, at least in part, to ensure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains committed to the US-negotiated deal as some Trump administration officials worry he could work to thwart it.
One US official characterized it as “Bibisitting.” Another framed it as a “show of force from the highest-ranking person after the president himself” to make the administration’s view clear that the ceasefire needs to be durable enough to “outlast inevitable skirmishes.”
The sources added that the general belief among US officials involved in the negotiations is that the truce is most threatened in the short term, which is why the trip needed to happen so soon after Trump’s visit just last week.
The concerns reached new heights after Israel accused Hamas of carrying out an attack over the weekend that killed two IDF soldiers. Israel responded with waves of airstrikes that killed dozens of people in Gaza.
US officials worked to minimize the fallout of the strikes and ensure the ceasefire was not threatened, the sources said. And while Israel and Hamas each accused the other of violating the deal, both sides ultimately reaffirmed their commitment to the truce.
The vice president said Tuesday that it is going to be a “constant effort” to “mediate these disagreements as they come up.” He asserted the trip “had nothing to do with events in the past 48 hours.”
Vance was accompanied at the news conference by Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, the key US architects of the deal. The pair are in Israel this week as the administration begins to work on the longer-term goals of the president’s 20-point peace plan for the region.
While there, Witkoff told Israel the country’s response to violence from Hamas needs to be proportionate to the violation, according to an Israeli source familiar with the matter. Witkoff also emphasized that the next 30 days are crucial for the deal to hold and for talks to enter the second phase, the source said.
The Israelis, meanwhile, are ramping up pressure on the US to demilitarize Hamas before talks move on to the reconstruction phase, an Israeli official said.
All of this comes as Trump himself has argued both privately and publicly that Sunday’s attack on IDF soldiers wasn’t the work of Hamas leaders but part of a “rebellion.” He has said that some members of Hamas “got very rambunctious,” but he believes the group is still committed to the truce and negotiations, the sources said.
Trump did, however, threaten to have the group “eradicated” if ultimately necessary.
The president wrote on social media Tuesday that “great allies” in and around the Middle East would “welcome the opportunity” to enter Gaza and “straighten [out] Hamas” if they continue to “act badly.”
Trump said he told these unspecified countries “not yet,” as “there is still hope that Hamas will do what is right.”
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Aileen Graef contributed to this report.
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