VP Vance said Hamas will be ‘obliterated’ if it doesn’t comply with ceasefire terms

Vance also addressed the return of the remains of deceased hostages and said the process will be slow and difficult.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Vice President J.D. Vance warned Tuesday that Hamas faces annihilation if it fails to honor the cease-fire terms but declined to attach a timetable to that threat, saying Washington will not set a fixed deadline for disarmament.

Speaking at the U.S.-Israel coordination center overseeing the Gaza truce, Vance answered a question about Hamas disarming—a crucial part of the 20-part plan the terror group says it will not fulfill—by saying, “If Hamas doesn’t comply with the deal, very bad things are going to happen.”

“If Hamas doesn’t cooperate, it will be obliterated,” he said, echoing a similar statement by Donald Trump but not indicating any deadline for the terror group’s elimination of weapons.

Vance said his trip to Israel, which he described as planned for months, was not a last-minute effort to prop up the agreement after recent IDF strikes that followed a Hamas attack in which two Israeli soldiers were killed.

On the shape of Gaza’s future authority, Vance said the administration has not settled on a model. “I don’t know the answer to that question,” he said, adding that any governance arrangement must remain adaptable to conditions on the ground.

He emphasized that security, reconstruction and humanitarian needs—including food and medicine—must come first before long-term political arrangements are decided.

Vance also addressed the return of the remains of deceased hostages and said the process will be slow and difficult.

He noted some hostages may be buried beneath vast amounts of rubble or their locations simply unknown, and urged “a little bit of patience” as recovery teams work.

Vance acknowledged that Turkey playing a part may seem objectionable to Israelis given its past support for Hamas, but added, “No one who is a party to this conflict can look at the conflict and not point at something that they don’t like and that they disagree with … The way that we’re going to get to peace is to focus on the future, which is what the president of the United States has asked us to do.”

“We’re not going to force anything on our Israeli friends when it comes to foreign troops on their soil, but we do think that there’s a constructive role for the Turks to play, and frankly, they’ve already played a very constructive role,” he added.

Despite the administration’s firm rhetoric, Vance reiterated that Washington will not impose a disarmament deadline, instead tying consequences to Hamas’s behavior under the cease-fire.