Ceasefire Deal Will Hold Despite Little Skirmishes: US Vice President After Israel Strikes Gaza

Hours after Israel launched another strike on Gaza, US Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday said the ceasefire deal will hold despite “little skirmishes”.

“The ceasefire is holding. That doesn’t mean that

there aren’t going to be little skirmishes here and there,” Vance told reporters.

“We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an Israeli military soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president’s peace is going to hold despite that,” he further said.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to carry out immediate “powerful strikes” on the Gaza Strip, shortly after accusing the Palestinian militant group Hamas of violating the US-brokered ceasefire.

A statement from Netanyahu’s office said the decision followed security consultations, with the Israeli Prime Minister instructing the military to act immediately against targets in Gaza.

“Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip,” the statement noted.

Netanyahu made the announcement shortly after Israeli forces reported that Hamas had opened fire in southern Gaza. Tensions were already high after the militant group returned a set of remains that Israel said belonged to a hostage whose body had previously been recovered.

Earlier today, Hamas said it would hand over another hostage body. The militant group has faced accusations of breaching the ceasefire after returning only partial remains of a previously recovered captive to Israel.

Late on Monday, Hamas had handed over what it claimed was the 16th of 28 hostage bodies agreed under the ceasefire, which came into effect on October 10. However, Israeli forensic examinations revealed that the remains were of a hostage whose body had already been returned to Israel about two years ago. Netanyahu’s office described this as a “clear violation of the agreement.”

Minutes after Netanyahu ordered the strikes, Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, announced it was postponing the handover of another hostage body scheduled for Tuesday evening. The group cited Israeli “violations” of the truce as the reason for the delay.

“We will postpone the handover that was scheduled for today due to the occupation’s violations,” the Brigades said in a statement, adding that any Israeli “escalation will hinder the search, excavation, and recovery of the bodies”.