WASHINGTON — The White House worked to maintain the Gaza Strip peace agreement on Monday, as American officials said they were increasingly concerned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could dismantle the U.S.-brokered deal.
Vice President JD Vance was on his way to Israel, where he would join Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East peace envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who were instrumental in negotiating the deal.
At the same time, President Donald Trump warned that he would allow Israeli forces to “eradicate” Hamas if violence in the enclave continued.
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Vance’s expected arrival was intended to add an extra symbolic layer to illustrate the administration’s commitment to keeping the agreement intact. The administration brokered a ceasefire this month in the two-year war between Israel and Hamas. But a new round of violence on Sunday highlighted the fragility of the 10-day ceasefire. According to the Israeli army, two Israeli soldiers were killed and another was injured when Palestinian militants launched an anti-tank missile at an army vehicle.
Several Trump administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there is concern within the administration that Netanyahu could abandon the deal. The strategy now, officials say, is for Vance, Witkoff and Kushner to try to prevent Netanyahu from renewing an all-out attack on Hamas.
Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the truce after repeated outbreaks of violence in recent days. But both sides said they were still committed to maintaining the truce.
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“This is the moment that matters,” said Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. “That’s what will set the tone for whether and how this ceasefire will hold, or what it actually means. All of that is being established now.”
Witkoff and Kushner acknowledge that the situation is “very delicate” and that the peace agreement they negotiated is at risk of falling apart, according to a senior administration official. Their goals are to stabilize the situation, ensure that humanitarian aid is delivered to Gaza, and ensure that the remaining bodies of deceased Israeli hostages are returned to their families.
In an effort to find the bodies, the United States is working with Turkey to bring in a team with expertise in body recovery due to the prevalence of earthquakes in Türkiye.
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