Donald Trump deploys top diplomatic force to shore up Gaza peace deal

In a dramatic show of diplomatic resolve, US President Donald Trump has dispatched his top envoys across the Middle East to safeguard what many see as his most consequential foreign policy achievement yet — the fragile Gaza peace deal.

After chief negotiators Jared Kushner and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff were stationed in Israel to steady the accord, vice-president J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, arrived for a three-day visit that took them from Jerusalem’s tense corridors of power to meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials.

Their departure on Thursday coincided with the arrival of secretary of state Marco Rubio, who was flying in to continue what Washington has dubbed an “unbroken chain of diplomacy.”

Yet even as America’s diplomatic machine churned, warnings from the United Nations underscored the fragility of the moment. Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN’s deputy special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the security council that while the agreement “represents hope for a better future,” its stability remains “extremely fragile.”

Indeed, the ceasefire — the spine of Trump’s peace blueprint — has already been tested. In the two weeks since its signing before European, Arab, and Muslim leaders, the truce has been breached once, when rogue Hamas units fired on Israeli troops, prompting a measured Israeli retaliation. Trump downplayed the clash, describing it as “provocation by rogue elements, not Hamas leadership.”

Meanwhile, his administration has defended Hamas’s failure to return all hostage remains, noting that some bodies may still lie buried beneath the ruins of Gaza’s bombed-out neighborhoods.

Vice-president Vance, whose rhetoric has grown increasingly forthright, did not mince words in his condemnation of Israel’s Knesset for passing a resolution that paved the way for West Bank annexation. “It was a very stupid political stunt,” he declared bluntly, calling it an insult to the peace process. “The West Bank will not be annexed by Israel.”

At the United Nations, US envoy Mike Waltz struck a tone of tempered optimism, calling the deal “a historic success” but warning against complacency. “As President Trump has said: the job is not done,” Waltz reminded the chamber.

With the hostage and prisoner exchanges nearly complete, the next phase — disarming Hamas — looms large. “We have a very, very tough task ahead of us,” Vance acknowledged, “which is to disarm Hamas.”

For now, the linchpin of the accord — an International Stabilisation Force to oversee demilitarisation — exists only on paper. Hamas remains armed, and reports from Gaza suggest that the group continues to terrorise civilians, threatening to unravel the fragile peace.

Vance ruled out deploying American troops directly into Gaza, though roughly 200 US personnel are already in Israel to “supervise and mediate” the peace process. Indonesia has offered 20,000 troops for the stabilisation force, and several other nations have signalled willingness to contribute under an international or UN-backed mandate.

Rubio, in his remarks before departure, hinted that Washington may “go to the UN to seek an international mandate” similar to the Haiti Multinational Security Support Mission — a force endorsed but not run by the UN, giving it both legitimacy and flexibility.

Even amid the uncertainties, talk of rebuilding Gaza has begun to take shape. With an estimated 80 percent of homes reduced to rubble, Vance said reconstruction could soon start in stabilised areas. “The hope is to rebuild Rafah over the next two to three years, where half a million people could once again live,” he said — a vision of renewal amid the ashes of war.

For now, the Gaza peace deal stands like a flickering candle in a storm — delicate, luminous, and dependent on the steady hands that guard it.

With IANS inputs