“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas but rebuild Gaza to make life better for the people in Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said in Jerusalem, speaking alongside Netanyahu.

“That’s not easy. I think the prime minster knows that as well as anybody. But it’s something that we’re committed to in the Trump administration,” Vance continued. “And I think that we’ve, even in the past 24 hours, had a lot of good conversations with our friends in the Israeli government, but also, frankly with our friends in the Arab world who are stepping up and volunteering to play a very positive role in this.”

“As the prime minister said, these are days of destiny, and we’re very excited to sit down and work together on the Gaza peace plan,” Vance added.

VANCE WARNS HAMAS AS GAZA PEACE PLAN’S CIVILIAN MILITARY COOPERATION CENTER OPENS

Vice President JD Vance meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.  (Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post/AP)

Netanyahu told reporters that Israel has an unmatched alliance and partnership with the U.S. that is generating opportunities for security and the expansion of peace in the Middle East.

Vance also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday, telling reporters afterward, “We’re here to talk about how to ensure that the peace agreement that started about a week ago sticks, that we move into phase two, into phase three with success.”

JOHNSON, SCALISE DEMAND ANSWERS AFTER SUSPECTED HAMAS OPERATIVE DISCOVERED ON US SOIL

Vice President JD Vance and Israeli President Isaac Herzog shake hands during a meeting at the presidential residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025. (Leo Correa/AP)

The peace deal included the release of hostages being held by Hamas.

“As the president said, there will be torments along the way. It will be difficult, but I feel very optimistic based on my conversation with our Israeli friends and also with our Gulf Arab friends, that it’s possible that we actually can make peace stick, and that we can create the kind of environment where our Gulf Arab friends and our Israeli friends can build a better Middle East for everybody,” Vance added. “So that is the goal of the administration. We think that it’s in the best interest of the United States. We also think that it’s in the best interest of everybody who lives here.”

Vice President JD Vance meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.  (Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post/AP)

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Herzog said, “I truly believe that the fact you’re here is another brick in building the future for peace.”

“We all are grateful to President Donald Trump for his steadfast insistence on moving forward. We must move forward,” Herzog continued. “We must offer hope for the region, for Israel, the Palestinians, our neighbors, and for the future of our children.”

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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While all the living hostages have been returned from Gaza, the remains of 13 deceased hostages have not been handed over by Hamas.

“Some of the bodies are hard to reach, but others they can return now and, for some reason, they are not,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Perhaps it has to do with their disarming, but when I said, ‘Both sides would be treated fairly,’ that only applies if they comply with their obligations. Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours. I am watching this very closely.”

Hours before Trump’s post, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with the families of Itay Chen and Omer Neutra, two U.S. citizens who were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

President Donald Trump poses with a signed agreement during a world leaders summit focused on ending the Gaza war in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Oct 13. (Suzanne Plunkett/Getty Images)

TRUMP THANKS GROUP REPRESENTING FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE APPEAL

Their bodies are among those still being held by Hamas.

“We will not forget the lives of the hostages who died in the captivity of Hamas,” Rubio wrote in an X post. “We will not rest until their—and all—remains are returned.”

Authorities believed Chen, a 19-year-old dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, but was later declared dead by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

President Donald Trump signs the agreement at a world leaders summit on ending the war in Gaza amid a U.S.-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Oct. 13. (Reuters)

TRUMP SAYS HAMAS MAY RELEASE 20 HOSTAGES ‘A LITTLE BIT EARLY’ AS HE HEADS TO MIDDLE EAST

Neutra, 21, an American-Israeli from New York, was killed in battle on Oct. 7, 2023.

Huckabee noted Rubio’s visit to Israel was “very productive in moving forward” the U.S.-brokered Gaza peace plan, adding the plan cannot work until all hostages, living and deceased, are released.

While traveling to Asia Saturday, Trump met with Qatari leaders aboard Air Force One while refueling at Al-Udeid Air Base.

People wave Israeli and American flags in Hostages Square during a rally supporting hostages and missing families following the Israel-Hamas peace deal. (Dana Reany/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

TRUMP ON WHAT IT WILL TAKE TO BRING ISRAELI HOSTAGES HOME: HAMAS MUST BE ‘CONFRONTED AND DESTROYED’

Qatar has played a significant role in efforts to negotiate peace and ceasefires in Gaza.

After a meeting with Qatar Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Trump said “The Emir is one of the great rulers of the world … and the Prime Minister has been my friend.”

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Referencing the peace deal, the president said, “What we’ve done is incredible — peace in the Middle East.”

Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.

Alexandra Koch is a Fox News Digital journalist who covers breaking news, with a focus on high-impact events that shape national conversation.

She has covered major national crises, including the L.A. wildfires, Potomac and Hudson River aviation disasters, Boulder terror attack, and Texas Hill Country floods.

The post Trump gives Hamas 48 hours to return all deceased Gaza hostages, or 'other countries will take action' appeared first on My Blog.

A bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, which effectively would annex the territory for Israel, passed a vote Wednesday in Israel’s parliament as Vance was visiting the country, according to Reuters. It was the first of four votes needed for the proposal to become law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party did not back the legislation, which was pushed by lawmakers outside his ruling coalition, the news agency added.

“That was weird. I was sort of confused by that,” Vance told reporters on Thursday when asked about the vote. “Now I actually asked somebody about it, and they told me that it was a symbolic vote, some symbolic vote to recognize or a symbolic vote to annex the West Bank. I mean, what I would say to that is when I asked about it, somebody told me it was a political stunt, that it had no practical significance, it was purely symbolic.”

“I mean look, if it was a political stunt, it was a very stupid political stunt, and I personally take some insult to it. The West Bank is not going to be annexed by Israel,” Vance added. “The policy of the Trump administration is that the West Bank will not be annexed by Israel. That will continue to be our policy. And if people want to take symbolic votes, they can do that, but we certainly weren’t happy about it.”

JD VANCE SAYS PSAKI’S REMARK ABOUT HIS WIFE WAS ‘DISGRACEFUL’

Vice President JD Vance speaks during a press conference following a military briefing at the Civilian Military Coordination Center on Oct. 21, 2025, in Kiryat Gat, Israel.  (Pool/Getty Images/Nathan Howard)

Following Vance’s comments, a top member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party announced Thursday that the Israeli prime minister told him not to advance proposals regarding the annexation of the West Bank, according to Israeli media.

“The Knesset vote on annexation was a deliberate political provocation by the opposition to sow discord during Vice President JD Vance’s visit to Israel. The two bills were sponsored by opposition members of the Knesset,” Netanyahu’s office wrote on X.

“The Likud party and the religious parties (the principal coalition members) did not vote for these bills, except for one disgruntled Likud member who was recently fired from the chairmanship of a Knesset committee. Without Likud support, these bills are unlikely to go anywhere,” it added.

VANCE HAILS ‘DAYS OF DESTINY’ AS VP SEEKS TO BUILD ON CEASEFIRE AGREEMENT

The city of Ramallah in the West Bank is seen on Oct. 9, 2025. (Zain Jaafar/AFP via Getty Images)

Possible annexation of the West Bank has been floated in Israel in response to a string of countries moving to recognize a Palestinian state, according to The Associated Press.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state. They, and much of the international community, say annexation would all but end any remaining possibility of a two-state solution, the AP reported.

More than half a million Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank in some 130 settlements.

Vice President JD Vance meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.  (Marc Israel Sellem/Jerusalem Post/AP)

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank,” President Donald Trump said in late September in the Oval Office. “I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen.”

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The deputy Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Majed Bamya, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that Palestinians “appreciate the clear message” the Trump administration has sent in opposition to annexation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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At that point, representatives from the Trump administration had hashed out an agreement with other mediators from countries including Qatar, Egypt and Turkey — just days before the two-year anniversary of the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Trump didn’t mince his words during a call with Netanyahu: the deal would be announced and Netanyahu had no other choice but to get on board, Time magazine reported Thursday.

COULD TRUMP’S GAZA CEASEFIRE PLAN OFFER A BLUEPRINT FOR PEACE IN UKRAINE?

President Donald Trump issued Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a stern warning Oct. 4, according to a new report.  (Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

“Bibi, you can’t fight the world,” Trump said he told Netanyahu, as he detailed their conversation in an interview with Time. “You can fight individual battles, but the world’s against you.”

Although Netanyahu resisted, Trump’s patience had expired. Trump “launched into a profanity-laced monologue cataloging all he’d done for Israel as President: moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing its sovereignty over the Golan Heights, brokering the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states, even joining Israel’s strikes on Iran in June,” according to Time.

As a result, Trump indicated that he would no longer back Netanyahu if the prime minister didn’t agree to the peace deal, Time reported.

“It was a very blunt and straightforward statement to Bibi…that he has no tolerance for anything other than this,” Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told the outlet.

Netanyahu ultimately agreed to the deal, which includes a provision requiring Israeli forces to pull its troops, and a complete disarmament of Hamas.

The deal also required Hamas to return the hostages that were still in captivity within 72 hours of signing the agreement. Hamas has yet to turn over some of the remains of deceased Israeli hostages.

TRUMP WRITES MESSAGE TO ISRAELIS AFTER ALL LIVING HOSTAGES RELEASED BY HAMAS

President Donald Trump has hailed the peace agreement as a victory and visited with Israeli lawmakers in the Knesset and other officials in Egypt.  (Chen Mengtong/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Israel began to face increased pressure and frustration from the Trump administration after it conducted strikes against Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, in September. Qatar is a U.S. ally, and the attack violated the country’s sovereignty — prompting Trump to say at the time that he was “very unhappy about every aspect” of the situation.

But Trump used the attack as leverage to convince regional leaders to band together and negotiate an end to the conflict.

“This was one of the things that brought us all together,” Trump told Time. “It was so out of joint that it sort of got everybody to do what they have to do. If you took that away, we might not be talking about this subject right now.”

Trump has hailed the peace agreement as a victory, and visited with Israeli lawmakers in the Knesset and other officials in Egypt to recognize the finalization of the first phase of the deal.

WORLD LEADERS PRAISE ‘LANDMARK’ ISRAEL-HAMAS PEACE DEAL MEDIATED BY US: ‘NEW HORIZON OF HOPE’

President Donald Trump speaks after signing a Gaza ceasefire agreement Oct. 13, 2025, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.  (Getty)

“At long last, we have peace in the Middle East, and it’s a very simple expression, peace in the Middle East,” Trump told reporters in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

“We’ve heard it for many years, but nobody thought it could ever get there,” Trump said. “And now we’re there.”

Now, Trump has indicated that he is setting his sights on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and signaled his administration will build off the momentum from the Middle East peace agreement to end the conflict in Europe.

Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Friday, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte Wednesday, to discuss the conflict.

Diana Stancy is a politics reporter with Fox News Digital covering the White House. 

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Walker, a former Republican congressman and Baptist pastor from North Carolina, was nominated byPresident Donald Trump to serve as the nation’s top global envoy for religious liberty. He will officially assume the post once confirmed by the Senate, becoming the seventh American to hold the role since it was created by Congress in 1998.

His visit to Israel, he explained, was driven by both friendship and timing. “All these other historic landmark agreements are happening the same week we’re here,” Walker said. “It’s been amazing to see the excitement — literally banners hanging from buildings and parks thanking President Trump for his ongoing efforts and the strength he’s shown to drive the region toward peace.”

VANCE WARNS HAMAS AS GAZA PEACE PLAN’S CIVILIAN MILITARY COOPERATION CENTER OPENS

Ambassador-Designate Mark Walker, center, visits the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel, in October 2025. (Warren Cohn)

Walker said he was particularly moved by his meetings with hostage families.

“I was overwhelmed to spend some time with Keith Siegel, who endured 483 days of captivity and torture, and withRuby Chen, whose son, Itay, was killed by Hamas — his body still not returned,” Walker said. “To hear the passion in Ruby’s voice, to see his perseverance, it’s overwhelming. In America, we’re watching this from a distance. But being here on the ground, seeing how the community has banded together to stand up for these hostages — alive or dead — has impacted me in a different manner.”

The experience, he said, deepened his appreciation for Israel’s resilience. “The people of Israel have stood resiliently in the face of evil,” he said. “Their faith and courage remind the world what strength looks like.”

With U.S. officials visiting Israel to monitor the fragile ceasefire, Walker said he remains confident in the administration’s leadership.

Ambassador-Designate Mark Walker for religious freedom with freed hostage Keith Siegel and Rubi Chen, father of hostage Itay Chen. (Warren Cohn)

ISRAEL IDENTIFIES 2 HOSTAGES RETURNED FROM GAZA AS RESIDENTS OF SAME KIBBUTZ

“I haveno confidence in Hamas based on their history,” he said. “But I have great confidence in President Trump and what he’s doing. He’s committed to peace and showing it with his actions — sending Vice President Vance, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff here this week.”

He also praised Secretary of StateMarco Rubio for advancing the administration’s diplomatic agenda. “This isn’t a photo opportunity,” Walker said. “It’s a real plan for long-term stability.”

When asked how he views Israel’s importance, Walker reflected on his years in Congress.

“I think historically, we’ve had a long-standing relationship of supporting each other through times of peril as well as times of success,” he said. “Certainly, military and business relationships, but from a spiritual standpoint, America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.”

He added, “When you sit in the House chamber where President Trump gives the State of the Union, there are 22 or 23 philosophers — great men of genius — depicted above. But there’s only one historical figure looking directly at the speaker’s rostrum, and that’s Moses. That tells you a lot about the spiritual connection that binds our two countries.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset as President Donald Trump and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Israeli Knesset, look on at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025 in Jerusalem.  (Chip Somodevilla/Pool via AP)

When asked about criticism from some within the evangelical community regarding its close alignment with Israel, Walker said he welcomes open discussion but rejects efforts to undermine the partnership. “I don’t have a problem with anyone questioning — we ought to be able to defend those relationships,” he said. “But when you see some of the talk lately that aims to degrade that relationship, maybe for personal gain or attention, I do have a problem with it, and I think it needs to be condemned.”

He added that such views are far from mainstream. “The evangelical communities that I’m part of — and I happen to be a member of the largest Protestant organization in the United States — don’t have those issues,” he said. “There may be some who are loosely affiliated and use that kind of rhetoric, but the overwhelming majority of evangelicals in America applaud and encourage the relationship we have with Israel.”

Attendees wave Israel and the United States flags at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) summit on July 17, 2023 in Arlington, Virginia. GOP presidential hopefuls for 2024 are making their cases before the pro-Israeli group.  (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

On his new role, Walker said the mission was deeply personal.

“When President Trump reached out and asked us to serve as the ambassador for International Religious Freedom — that’s a global position — it was humbling,” he said. “The responsibility is to advocate for people of all faiths, especially in places where they’re persecuted or punished by blasphemy laws.”

EVANGELICAL LEADERS PRAISE TRUMP’S CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL AMID WAR WITH IRAN

Walker said he is already building relationships with governments and faith leaders to prepare for his official role advising both President Trump and Secretary Rubio.

“Our job is to engage, expose and eradicate atrocities — whether it’s Christians in Nigeria being massacred, Druze in Syria targeted or rising antisemitic behavior worldwide,” he said. “The United States must remain the beacon of hope for religious freedom. We’re the only country that has it written into law.”

He added that Israel’s example of tolerance stands out in the Middle East. “Christians should be able to live peaceably, share their faith and worship without fear,” he said. “The fact that Israel allows that in a region where so many others don’t is meaningful.”

U.S. President Donald Trump holds the signed agreement of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Reuters)

Walker said he plans to “push back wherever persecution exists — whether through diplomacy or by urging governments to repeal blasphemy and anti-conversion laws.”

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He concluded, “President Trump is the only president in American history who called a global conference on religious liberty at the United Nations,” Walker said. “That sent a message across the world — that faith matters, that freedom matters. What we see here in Israel is that same spirit of courage, and it reminds us why this partnership, rooted in faith and freedom, must endure.”

Efrat Lachter is an investigative reporter and war correspondent. Her work has taken her to 40 countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan. She is a recipient of the 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellowship for Journalism. Lachter can be followed on X @efratlachter.

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