Gaza latest: Trump threatens to ‘eradicate’ Hamas ‘if they’re not good’ – as Israel identifies hostage body
‘I don’t know’: Vance admits long term plan for Gaza uncertain – as he denies visiting Israel due to tensions
Adam Parsons, our Middle East correspondent, was at that JD Vance news conference just now in southern Israel, where he asked the vice president two questions.
First, Parsons asked whether Vance had travelled to Israel because he thought Israel had overreacted with its military to the killing of two soldiers in the Gaza Strip.
“My visit had nothing to do with events of the past 48 hours,” Vance replied.
“We had actually tried to plan this visit, frankly, months ago, and now we thought this would be a good time to do it. It ended up working out – as you know, sometimes calendars are difficult, especially when you’re the vice president of the United States.
“But I wanted to come, I wanted to check in on things. I wanted to, you know, talk to the troops who are working very hard to coordinate this massive relief effort.
“And I wanted to just see how things were going.”
Vance said he would try to help troops now stationed in the region, after hearing their concerns on his trip.
Secondly, Parsons asked whether the vice president now believes it is feasible to have a government structure in Gaza that does not include strong Palestinian voices, after the reaction to the ceasefire so far.
Vance replied: “On your question about what the ultimate, you know, authority in Gaza looks like? I don’t know the answer to that question.
“And I think, what’s so cool, what’s so amazing, about what these guys have done is that we’re creating a governance structure that is very flexible to what happens on the ground in the future.
“We need to reconstitute Gaza. We need to reconstruct Gaza.
“We need to make sure that both the Palestinians living in Gaza, but also the Israelis, are able to live in some measure of security and stability.
“We’re doing all those things simultaneously.
“And then I think once we’ve got to a point where both the Gazans and our Israeli friends can have some measure of security, then we’ll worry about what the long-term governance of Gaza is.
“Let’s focus on security, rebuilding, giving people some food and medicine.”
