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White House works to preserve Gaza deal amid concerns about Netanyahu

21 October 2025 08:54 (UTC +04:00)

The White House worked to hold together the Gaza peace deal on Monday as American officials said they were increasingly concerned that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, could dismantle the U.S.-brokered agreement.

Vice President JD Vance was headed to Israel, where he was to join Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, who were instrumental in brokering the deal.

“We made a deal with Hamas that, you know, they’re going to be very good. They’re going to behave. They’re going to be nice,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.

Mr. Vance’s expected arrival was meant to add an extra symbolic layer to illustrate the administration’s commitment to keeping the deal intact. The administration brokered a cease-fire this month in a two-year war between Israel and Hamas. But a new round of violence on Sunday has highlighted the fragility of the 10-day-old cease-fire. According to the Israeli military, two Israeli soldiers were killed and another was wounded when Palestinian militants launched an anti-tank missile at an army vehicle.

Several Trump officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said there is concern within the administration that Mr. Netanyahu may vacate the deal. The strategy now, the officials say, is for Mr. Vance, Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner to try to keep Mr. Netanyahu from resuming an all-out assault against Hamas.

Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner acknowledge the situation is “very delicate” and the peace deal they negotiated is in danger of falling apart, according to a senior administration official. Their goals are to stabilize the situation, ensure the humanitarian aid is delivered in Gaza and make sure the remaining bodies of deceased Israeli hostages are returned to their families.

In an effort to find the bodies, the United States is working with Türkiye to bring a team that has expertise in body retrieval because of the prevalence of earthquakes in Türkiye.

Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner are also working on some of the trickier areas that were left undefined in their initial deal, which successfully returned all living Israeli hostages. Those include the creation of a stabilization force to be led by Egypt and beginning the demilitarization of Hamas, for which no timeline has been set.