On Thursday morning, Vance met with Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv. Very little has been leaked from the meeting, but according to Israeli media, Katz is said to have repeated Israel's demands to bring home all dead hostages and disarm Hamas in Gaza.
On X Katz praises the American vice president as a "true friend of the state of Israel".
Also, the army chief Eyal Zamir and other military leaders participated in the meeting, which was initially supposed to be about the situation in the Gaza Strip. The newspaper The Times of Israel describes the meetings as "unusual".
Foreign Minister Rubio, who left the US for Israel late on Wednesday, is, according to the US State Department, in Israel to "support the successful implementation" of the White House's peace plan for Gaza. On Friday, he will meet with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reports The New York Times.
At the same time, the US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's adviser Jared Kushner have left Israel for the United Arab Emirates. There, they will continue the talks on the ceasefire in Gaza and the work to stabilize the region, writes the news agency EFE.
The ceasefire in Gaza is in its second week. However, both Israel and Hamas have repeated accusations against each other for violating the ceasefire. According to analysts, the many American visits to Israel are a way to try to ensure that the US-mediated agreement holds.
