JERUSALEM, Israel – U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel Tuesday for talks about the second phase of President Trump's Gaza peace deal, while U.S. mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are here to press for the completion of the plan's first phase. Vance and his wife, Usha, arrived for a three-day visit.
Witkoff and Kushner met on Monday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against the backdrop of Hamas's violation of the agreement when the terror group attacked Israeli toops, killing two soldiers. Israel responded with dozens of airstrikes.
Witkoff and Kushner met today with the hostages who were released last Monday. They thanked the two for their role in securing the deal that brought them home, and Trump for making their release a top priority.
The White House warned Hamas again that much is riding on their willingness to abide by the agreement.
Trump declared, "We made a deal with Hamas that they're gonna be very good, they're gonna behave, they're gonna be nice, and if they're not, we're gonna go and eradicate them if we have to. They'll be eradicated."
The president insisted the U.S. is taking currently taking many steps in the Middle East, including actions regardiing Hamas.
"This is a very violent group of people. They got very rambunctious and they did things they should not be doing. If they keep doing it then we will go in and straighten it out. It will happen very quickly and pretty violently, unfortunately.”
Israel resumed humanitarian aid deliveries on Monday after the ceasefire was reinstated.
Hamas then returned the body of another deceased hostage overnight. Tal Haimi, a member of the local emergency response team on the Gaza perimeter, had bone out on October 7th, 2023, to defend his community, Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak. He was killed and his body taken to Gaza. He left behind a wife and four children. The youngest was born after he was kidnapped.
The bodies of 15 deceased hostages remain in Gaza. Hamas was supposed to have returned them last week.
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Jonathan Schanzer from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said on The 700 Club that Hamas has no intention of disarming.
"This is a terrorist organization that's been around since 1988," Schanzer explained. "They don't want to disarm. They don't want to dismantle themselves. They want to stay in power. They control Gaza, or at least they did. Now they control a part of Gaza, but they don't want to relinquish that power. And I think that's very clear. They also exist to destroy the state of Israel."
Schanzer believes the central problem is the involvement of Turkey and Qatar, who vouched for Hamas and brought the group to the negotiations with Trump. He contends that Vance, Witkoff and Kushner need to deal with them.
"The United States needs to come down on the Turks and the Qataris like a ton of bricks. This is where the leverage is for Hamas, and we need to get them back into the deal, complying with the deal," he said.
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