JD Vance says Hamas will be ‘obliterated’ if terrorist group refuses to cooperate with Israel ceasefire deal: Live updates

Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that Hamas will be ‘obliterated’ if the Palestinian terror group doesn’t uphold its end of President Donald Trump’s ceasefire deal.

‘Look, our warning to Hamas is very straightforward. The terms of the 20-point plan that the president put out there is very clear,’ Vance said.

‘It’s that Hamas has to disarm. It’s that Hamas has to actually behave itself and that Hamas, while all the fighters can be given some sort of clemency, they’re not going to be able to kill each other and they’re not going to be able to kill their fellow Palestinians,’ the vice president continued.

Since the ceasefire deal was struck, videos of Hamas fighters have emerged showing them executing other Palestinians in public, and Israel has also accused the group of violating the terms, prompting Israeli military strikes on Sunday.

Vance said it’s going to ‘take a little time’ to put the security and humanitarian apparatus in place to keep Gaza secure.

‘But right now, from where I stand, I feel confident that we’re going to be in a place where this peace lasts, where it’s durable. And if Hamas doesn’t cooperate then, as the president of the United States has said, Hamas is going to be obliterated,’ Vance said.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was noticeably absent from Donald Trump’s Rose Garden lunch with senators on Tuesday.

The president called out Paul for being an oppositional voice of the party in Congress.

‘We have everybody but one person here,’ Trump said. ‘We’re just missing one person and you’ll never guess who that is.’

He then railed against the Kentucky senator because he ‘automatically votes no on everything.’

Later in his remarks to Republican senators, the president again tore into Paul by claiming he voted against the Take it Down Act – even though he voted in favor of the law.

‘The Republican Senate also gave us the largest working class tax cut in American history and you passed the Laken Riley Act to throw illegal alien criminals out of country, you passed the Genius Act and the Take it Down Act with the support of our wonderful First Lady – by the way, she got actual support from the other side, it was bipartisan,’ Trump said.

‘I think Rand didn’t vote for it again,’ he added to chuckles. ‘I think it was only Rand. We got bipartisan support other than maybe Rand.’

Vice President JD Vance claimed that other Arab Gulf nations want to have ‘normal’ relations with Israel, and believes the Israel-Hamas peace deal will create a domino effect in the region.

‘We know that a lot of our Gulf Arab friends would like to have normalized relations with Israel,’ Vance said.

‘We know that getting this peace on a sustainable pathway is sort of the critical first step.

‘If we get this right, I really do think it’s going to be a domino that leads to a lot of further peace all across the region.’

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who is the lone Republican to vote against the government funding bill, told CBS News he was not invited to Trump’s Rose Garden luncheon.

‘I don’t know, because there are other people who occasionally vote against him as well,’ Paul said when asked if he thought he was intentionally left out.

‘I don’t think it’s a real smart strategy. But it is their prerogative. They rule the roost over there, they can make decisions on who they want to invite. I think in the end, it’s not a great tactic for them.’

Donald Trump boasted to Republican senators about breaking ground on a new ballroom at the White House.

The president assured he’s using his own money to fund the project.

Demolition began in the East Wing on Monday to make way for the ballroom that Trump says will be able to hold hundreds of people for indoor events at the White House.

‘On the other side you see the fence and the wall – we’re building a world class ballroom,’ the president said in remarks before senators in the Rose Garden for a lunch on Tuesday. ‘For 150 years they’ve wanted a ballroom here. We don’t have a ballroom.’

Trump said if he got a second term, he knew he wanted to ‘get a ballroom built.’

‘And we’re putting up our own money, the government is paying for nothing,’ he insisted. ‘You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back. You hear that? Ah, that’s music to my ears.’

‘I think when I heard that sound it reminds me of money. In this case, it reminds me of lack of money because I’m paying for it, so it’s the opposite.’

Donald Trump hosted Republican senators for a lunch in his re-designed Rose Garden alongside the new Presidential Walk of Fame wall on Tuesday.

At least 15 GOP members of the upper chamber of Congress gathered for remarks from the president before a private lunch.

It comes the day after demolition started in the East Wing to begin construction of Trump’s promised White House ballroom.

Senators in attendance on Tuesday include:

Tim Scott (S.C.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Katie Britt (Ala.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Ted Cruz (Texas), John Barrasso (Wyo.), James Lankford (Okla.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Ashely Moody (Fla.), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Jim Banks (Ind.), Markwayne Mullin (Okla.), Cindy Hyde Smith (Miss.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska).

Vice President JD Vance claimed that his visit to Israel is unrelated to recent reports that the ceasefire deal is on thin ice after two IDF soldiers were killed.

‘My visit had nothing to do with events of the past 48 hours. We had actually tried to plan this visit, frankly, months ago, and now we thought this would be a good time to do it,’ he said.

‘I wanted to just see how things were going.’

Vice President JD Vance wouldn’t set a deadline for Hamas fighters to disarm – part of President Donald Trump’s 20-point Middle East peace plan.

When asked by a reporter in Israel Tuesday how much time Hamas has to comply with that part of the deal, Vance left it open-ended.

‘We know that Hamas has to comply with the deal and if Hamas doesn’t comply with the deal, very bad things are going to happen. But I’m not going to do what the President of the United States has so far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it,’ Vance answered. ‘Because a lot of this stuff is difficult.’

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, warned people not to get ‘a little hysterical’ about slight violations of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking at a press conference in Israel Tuesday alongside Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Ivanka Trump’s husband reminded reporters that the two sides are coming out of ‘two years of very intense warfare.’

Kushner said his team is working to get the remaining remains of Israeli hostages out of Gaza, which was part of the Trump peace deal, and get food aid into the wartorn Palestinian territory.

‘It’s been a lot of sleepless nights, around-the-clock effort, and it’s been really great coordination because everyone believes that it is possible to create something better in Gaza, and we have to believe it, we have to work hard for it, and if we all work hard to do that, then I do believe a geat outcome is possible,’ Kushner said.

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, said at a press conference Tuesday that the Israeli hostages he met were not ‘victims.’

‘I didn’t see any victims in that room,’ Witkoff said at a press conference marking Vice President JD Vance’s trip to the region. ‘I saw strong people who have come out under very difficult circumstances.’

‘Their families are reunited, and they are so grateful and it was just my privilege as an American to be there,’ Witkoff added.

VP Vance said that the Western media had a ‘weird attitude’ and ‘almost a desire to root for failure’ during the press conference despite reports of Israeli air strikes on Gaza since the truce began.

On Sunday, health officials in Gaza reported that at least 46 Palestinians were killed after Israel carried out airstrikes in the territory, following reports of Israeli soldiers being killed in the southern region, NPR reported.

During a press conference in Israel on Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance said ‘we’ve got a lot of work left to do,’ with regards to the Israel-Palestine ceasefire deal.

‘This will take a long time,’ he added before thanking the Israeli government.

Vance is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials and is expected to remain in the region through Thursday.

Vance is also expected to meet with families of hostages whose remains are still in Gaza, following the release of many living captives last week.

Donald Trump promised to unleash death upon Hamas if the militants do not uphold their peace agreement with Israel.

‘Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have explicitly and strongly, with great enthusiasm, informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and “straighten out Hamas” [sic] if Hamas continues to act badly, in violation of their agreement with us,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The president’s comments come as Vice President JD arrived in Israel for urgent talks with Benjamin Netanyahu as the Gaza peace deal hangs by a thread.