The White House is actively striving to maintain the delicate Gaza peace agreement, as American officials express growing concerns that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might abandon the U.S.-brokered accord. Vice President JD Vance is currently en route to Israel, where he will join Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, all of whom were pivotal in establishing the deal. Simultaneously, President Trump has issued a stern warning, stating that he would authorize Israeli forces to ‘eradicate’ Hamas if the violence in the region persists. ‘We made a deal with Hamas that, you know, they’re going to be very good. They’re going to behave. They’re going to be nice,’ Mr. Trump informed reporters at the White House. ‘And if they’re not, we’re going to go and we’re going to eradicate them if we have to. They’ll be eradicated. And they know that.’
Vice President Vance’s visit is intended to powerfully signal the administration’s unwavering commitment to upholding the agreement. This month, the administration successfully brokered a ceasefire in a two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas. However, a recent surge in violence this past Sunday has underscored the extreme vulnerability of the ten-day-old truce. According to the Israeli military, two Israeli soldiers were tragically killed and another wounded when Palestinian militants launched an anti-tank missile at an army vehicle. Several Trump officials, speaking anonymously due to the private nature of the discussions, confirmed internal administration fears that Mr. Netanyahu might indeed withdraw from the agreement. The current strategy, these officials explain, is for Vance, Witkoff, and Kushner to exert influence and prevent Mr. Netanyahu from initiating a full-scale offensive against Hamas. Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the truce following multiple escalations of violence in recent days. Nevertheless, both parties have publicly affirmed their dedication to maintaining the ceasefire.
As of now, the president believes that Hamas leaders are genuinely willing to continue good-faith negotiations and that the attack on Israeli soldiers was carried out by a rogue faction within the group, a White House official revealed in a private conversation about the president’s views. Mr. Trump has notably challenged Israeli statements that Hamas had breached the agreement. On Monday, he described the ongoing clashes in Gaza as an internal ‘rebellion’ within Hamas, not representative of the organization’s core leadership. He acknowledged that some Hamas fighters ‘got very rambunctious,’ but reiterated that if the violence continues, the United States would grant Israel permission to forcefully eliminate the organization. Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, commented, ‘This is the moment that matters. This is what is going to set the tone for if and how this cease-fire holds, or what it even means. That’s all being established now.’
When questioned about the situation in Gaza on Monday, Mr. Trump asserted that it was the responsibility of other nations to enforce the agreement. Currently, negotiators representing some of the Arab governments involved in brokering the deal are holding meetings in Cairo, as per the White House official privy to the planning. ‘Right now, it’s in the hands of others,’ Mr. Trump stated earlier. ‘You know, we have 59 countries that agreed to the deal.’ Witkoff and Kushner recognize the situation as ‘very delicate’ and acknowledge that the peace deal they brokered is at risk of collapse, a senior administration official confirmed. Their primary objectives are to stabilize the situation, ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and facilitate the return of the remaining bodies of deceased Israeli hostages to their families. To aid in the search for remains, the United States is collaborating with Turkey, leveraging their expertise in body retrieval, honed by the frequent earthquakes in their region.
Witkoff and Kushner are also tackling some of the more complex, undefined aspects of their initial deal, which successfully secured the release of all living Israeli hostages. These outstanding issues include establishing a stabilization force, to be led by Egypt, and initiating the demilitarization of Hamas, for which no timeline has yet been set. A significant complication has arisen from Hamas’s brutal crackdown on its rivals in Gaza since the deal was signed. This development was initially praised by Mr. Trump as an effort ‘to take out gangs,’ but he has since expressed doubts. Hamas is obligated to demilitarize as part of the agreement, but achieving this goal will be challenging. Mr. Trump has indicated that if Hamas reneges on its pledges to demilitarize, Israel would receive the full support of the United States to violently eliminate the organization. The U.S. team is also working to bring in developers to rebuild areas no longer under Hamas control, establishing tariff-free zones for reconstruction efforts in those parts of Gaza. Vance remarked on Sunday that the ‘best-case scenario’ would involve a series of ‘fits and starts’ between the Israelis and Hamas. ‘Hamas is going to fire on Israel,’ he predicted. ‘Israel is going to have to respond.’ Mr. Vance conceded that it is challenging to ascertain the exact ‘reality on the ground’ when dealing with Hamas, noting that the organization has ‘about 40 different cells.’ ‘Some of those cells will probably honor the cease-fire,’ he commented. ‘Many of those cells, as we saw some evidence of today, will not. Before we actually can ensure that Hamas is properly disarmed, that’s going to require, as we know, some of these Gulf Arab states, to get forces in there to actually apply some law and order and some security keeping on the ground.’