Vance says Gaza's fragile ceasefire going better than expected
[October 21, 2025]
By MELANIE LIDMAN and SAMY MAGDY
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance has visited a newly
opened civilian-military cooperation center in Israel that the U.S. says
is central to keeping Trump’s Gaza peace plan on track.
Vance said the fragile ceasefire is going “better than I expected” it
would. And White House envoy Steve Witkoff says “we are exceeding where
we thought we would be at this time.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Israel
on Tuesday to shore up the fragile U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza,
following a burst of deadly violence and questions over the plan for
long-term peace.
Vance was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
other officials and is expected to stay in the region until Thursday.
White House envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald
Trump’s son-in-law, arrived Monday and Vance met with them upon landing.
Vance was also expected to meet with families of hostages whose remains
are still in Gaza and some of the living hostages released last week.
Witkoff and Kushner met with nine of them on Tuesday.
Hamas said it has recovered the remains of two more hostages and planned
to hand them over Tuesday evening.
The ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10. While it has been tested by
Sunday's fighting and mutual accusations of violations, both Israel and
Hamas have said they are committed to the deal. Trump has made clear he
wants it to succeed.
Pressure for the ceasefire's second phase
The head of Egypt’s intelligence agency, Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad,
traveled to Israel on Tuesday to meet with Netanyahu, Witkoff and others
over the ceasefire's implementation, according to Netanyahu’s office.
The meetings highlight the urgency of launching negotiations for the
second phase of the U.S. plan, which must address issues such as the
disarmament of Hamas and the governance of postwar Gaza.
Hamas negotiators reiterated that the group is committed to ensuring the
war “ends once and for all.”
“From the day we signed the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement, we were
determined and committed to seeing it through to the end,” Hamas chief
negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who is in Cairo, told Egypt’s Al-Qahera News
television late Monday.
Israel identifies another body of a hostage
Israel confirmed that Palestinian militants had released the body of Tal
Haimi, who was killed in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited
the war. He was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak. The 42-year-old was
part of its emergency response team and had four children, including one
born after the attack.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel is waiting for Hamas to turn
over the remains of 15 hostages. Thirteen others have been turned over.
Under the deal, Israel is releasing 15 Palestinian bodies for the
remains of each dead hostage, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, part
of the Hamas-run government. It said Israel had transferred another 15
on Tuesday, for a total of 165 since earlier this month.
Aid into Gaza increases, while prices rise
International organizations said they were scaling up humanitarian aid
entering Gaza, while Hamas-led security forces launched a crackdown
against what it called price gouging by private merchants.
The World Food Program said it had sent more than 530 trucks into Gaza
in the past 10 days, enough to feed nearly half a million people for two
weeks. That's still well under the 500 to 600 that entered daily before
the war.
The WFP also said it had reinstated 26 distribution points and hopes to
scale up to its previous 145 points across Gaza as soon as possible.
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People gather to welcome freed Israeli hostage, Avinatan Or, who was
recently released from Hamas captivity in Gaza, as he return from
the hospital to his home at the West Bank settlement of Shilo,
Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Residents said prices for essential goods soared on Sunday after
militants killed two Israeli soldiers and Israel responded with
strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians. Israel also threatened
to halt humanitarian aid.
At a market in the central city of Deir al-Balah, a 25-kilogram
(55-pound) package of flour was selling for more than $70 on Sunday,
up from about $12 shortly after the ceasefire. By Tuesday, the price
was around $30.
Mohamed al-Faqawi, a Khan Younis resident, accused merchants of
taking advantage of the perilous security situation. “They are
exploiting us,” he said.
On Monday, Hamas said its security forces raided shops across Gaza,
closing at least 10 shops and warehouses, and forced merchants to
lower prices. Hamas also has imposed more order, allowing aid trucks
to move safely and halting looting of deliveries.
Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza’s private truckers’ union, said there
was no stealing aid since the ceasefire started.
But other significant challenges remain as Gaza's financial system
is in tatters. With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable,
people pay exorbitant commissions to a network of cash brokers to
get money for daily expenses.
On Tuesday, dozens of people in Deir al-Balah spent hours in line at
the Bank of Palestine hoping to access their money but were turned
away.
“Without having the bank open and without money, it does not matter
that the prices (in the market) have dropped,” said Kamilia Al-Ajez.
Gaza doctors say bodies returned with signs of torture
A senior health official in Gaza said some bodies of Palestinians
returned by Israel bore “evidence of torture” and called for a
United Nations-launched investigation.
So far, only 32 of the bodies have been identified, according to
Gaza's Health Ministry.
Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, the ministry's general director, said in on
social media late Monday that some had evidence of being bound with
ropes and metal shackles, blindfolds, deep wounds, abrasions, burns
and crushed limbs.
It was not immediately clear if any of the bodies had been
prisoners; they are returned without identifications or details on
how they died. The bodies could include Palestinian detainees who
died in Israeli custody or bodies taken out of Gaza by Israeli
troops during the war.
The Israel Prisons Service denied that prisoners had been
mistreated, saying it had followed legal procedures and provided
medical care and “adequate living conditions.”
Israeli hostages released from Gaza have also reported metal
shackles and harsh conditions, including frequent beatings and
starvation.
In the initial 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas-led militants killed
around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as
hostages.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians,
according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish
between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry
maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally
reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has
disputed them without providing its own toll.
Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
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