Disarming Hamas while rebuilding Gaza will be ‘very tough’ – Vance

Vice President JD Vance meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, says Trump administration is committed to ensure Hamas is disarmed and Gaza Strip rebuilt.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

The Trump administration is “committed” to rebuilding the Gaza Strip while also ensuring that Hamas is disarmed, Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday, while admitting that handling the two issues would be a “very tough task.”

Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, in Jerusalem a day after the vice president arrived in Israel.

After their meeting, Vance and Netanyahu held a joint press conference during which Vance said the administration’s 20-point Gaza peace plan faced “days of destiny” that would determine whether it succeeded in ending the two-year war between Hamas and Israel or would fall apart amid repeated violations of the ceasefire by Gaza terrorists.

The US, Vance said, faces the difficult task of improving the lives of Gazans while preventing Hamas from reconstituting its military capabilities and threatening Israel.

“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said.

“That’s not easy. I think the prime minister knows that as well as anybody, but it’s something that we’re committed to in the Trump administration.”

Despite the challenges, however, Vance expressed optimism the shaky truce will hold.

“I think we’ve, even in the past 24 hours, had a lot of good conversations with our friends in the Israeli government, but also, frankly, with our friends in the Arab world who are stepping up and volunteering to play a very positive role in this. So we’re going to keep working at it.”

“I think that we have an opportunity to do something really historic.”