Israel pressed US to give Hamas a firm deadline to comply with deal, says Israeli source

Israel was concerned about US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s refusal to put a deadline on Hamas compliance with the Gaza ceasefire deal last week, an Israeli source tells The Times of Israel.

In an October 21 Truth Social post, Trump wrote that regional actors and Israel were threatening to punish Hamas but he told them, “‘NOT YET!’ There is still hope that Hamas will do what is right.” Vance said in Israel the same day that “I’m not going to do what the president of the United States has thus far refused to do, which is put an explicit deadline on it because a lot of this stuff is difficult.”

Israel expressed its concerns to senior US officials in recent days, says the source, and found sympathy from its American interlocutors. On Saturday, Trump set a firm deadline, warning that he would be watching Hamas’s actions “very closely” over the next 48 hours.

Israel is trying to ensure that it and Washington are on the same page as much as possible, says the source, including on foreign involvement in Gaza.

“Israel doesn’t like the fact that Qatar and Turkey are involved,” says the source, “but they very much like the fact that Egypt is involved and they want to expand the Egyptian involvement.”