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U.S. Vice Pres­i­dent JD Vance on Tues­day called progress in Gaza’s frag­ile cease­fire bet­ter than an­tic­i­pat­ed but ac­knowl­edged dur­ing an Is­rael vis­it the chal­lenges that re­main, from dis­arm­ing Hamas to re­build­ing a land dev­as­tat­ed by two years of war.

Vance not­ed flare­ups of vi­o­lence in re­cent days but said the cease­fire be­tween Is­rael and Hamas that be­gan on Oct. 10 is go­ing “bet­ter than I ex­pect­ed.” The Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s Mid­dle East en­voy, Steve Witkoff, added that “we are ex­ceed­ing where we thought we would be at this time.”

They vis­it­ed a new cen­ter in Is­rael for civil­ian and mil­i­tary co­op­er­a­tion as ques­tions re­main over the long-term plan for peace, in­clud­ing when and how an in­ter­na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty force will de­ploy to Gaza and who will gov­ern the ter­ri­to­ry af­ter the war.