In an interview with ABC on Sunday, Vance confirmed reports that the number of Hamas hostages alive was 20 and that he expected their release to occur at any time within the next 24 hours.
-It's been confirmed. Of course, you never know until you see these people alive. “But thank God we expect to see them alive here within the next 24 hours, probably early tomorrow morning U.S. time,” Vance said.
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Sharm el-Sheikh Agreement. “Keeping the peace will take work.”
Although the Israeli authorities have so far said that there are 20 hostages still alive in Hamas' captivity, President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that the number may be fewer. Trump also said that while he expected there would be no problem with releasing them, locating the bodies of those who died in captivity would be more difficult.
In an interview with NBC television, Vance said that the agreement, which is to be ceremonially signed on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, is intended to end the war in the Gaza Strip for good, although he admitted that maintaining peace will require a lot of work.
He also corrected suggestions that the US should send additional troops to monitor compliance with the ceasefire. Vance noted that the 200 soldiers who will form a special task force for this purpose are troops already stationed in the Middle East in the Central Command (CENTCOM) command area. According to a senior White House representative who informed journalists about this plan on Friday, in addition to US soldiers, the team will also include representatives of the armies of Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
JD Vance on Donald Trump's actions. “He broke the rules”
Vance said Trump succeeded in achieving peace because he rejected the legacy approach of his predecessors and put a lot of work into it.
“He actually broke the rules, instead of conducting diplomacy the same way he has for the last 30 or 40 years, he gave (special envoy) Steve Witkoff and (the president's son-in-law) Jared Kushner broad powers to get a peace deal done, and he worked hard on everyone from the Israelis to the Arab states to make it happen,” the vice president said.
He noted that while the crowd whistled during Saturday's large rally in Tel Aviv when presidential envoy Witkoff mentioned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, they cheered for Donald Trump.
In an interview with Fox News, Vance expressed his belief that it will be possible to ensure that both sides of the conflict fulfill the terms of peace. He added that a number of Muslim countries, including those as distant as Indonesia, have expressed their willingness to send stabilization forces to the Gaza Strip, and the reconstruction will be handled by the rich countries of the Persian Gulf.
