Vance was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials and is expected to stay in the region until Thursday.
His visit follows Monday's arrival of White House envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Vance met with them upon landing.
Vance is also expected to meet with families of captives whose bodies are still held in Gaza and some of the living captives released last week under the ceasefire.
Earlier on Tuesday, Witkoff and Kushner met with nine of them.
The ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10. While it has been tested by fighting on Sunday and mutual accusations of violations, both Israel and Hamas have said they are committed to the deal. Trump has made clear he wants it to succeed.
Pressure for the ceasefire's second phase
The head of Egypt’s intelligence agency, Maj. Gen. Hassan Rashad arrived in Israel on Tuesday to meet Netanyahu, Witkoff, and other officials, to discuss solidifying the Gaza ceasefire, Al-Qahera News TV reported.
The high-level meetings highlight the urgency of launching negotiations for the second phase of the US plan.
Hamas negotiators reiterated that the group is committed to ensuring the war “ends once and for all.”
“From the day we signed the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement, we were determined and committed to seeing it through to the end,” Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who is in Cairo, told Egypt’s Al-Qahera News television late Monday.
He said Israel has complied with aid deliveries in the Gaza crossings according to the agreement, but asked mediators to pressure Israel to deliver more shelter, medical supplies, and cold-weather items before winter arrives.
Israel identifies another body of a captive
Israel confirmed Tuesday that Palestinian resistance had released the body of another Israeli.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israel transferred the bodies of another 15 Palestinians to Gaza.
Under the deal, Israel is releasing 15 bodies for the remains of each dead captive, according to the ministry.
Israel has returned 165 bodies since earlier this month.
Gaza doctors say bodies returned with signs of torture.
A senior health official in Gaza said some bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel bore “evidence of torture” and called for an investigation.
So far, only 32 of the bodies have been identified, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Dr. Muneer al-Boursh, the ministry's general director, said in a social media post late Monday that some had evidence of being bound with ropes and metal shackles, blindfolds, deep wounds, abrasions, burns, and crushed limbs.
He called for the United Nations to launch an “urgent and independent international investigation.”
It was not immediately clear if any of the bodies had been prisoners; they are being returned without identification or details on how they died.
The bodies could include Palestinian detainees who died in Israeli custody or bodies taken out of Gaza by Israeli troops during the war.
The genocidal Israeli war on Gaza has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, with over 170,000 others wounded, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross.
Aid into Gaza increases, and prices rise.
International organizations said they were scaling up humanitarian aid entering Gaza, while Hamas-led security forces launched a crackdown against what it called price gouging by private merchants.
The World Food Program said it had sent more than 530 trucks into Gaza in the past 10 days, enough to feed nearly half a million people for two weeks.
That's still well under the 500 to 600 that entered daily before the war.
The WFP also said it had reinstated 26 distribution points and hopes to scale up to its previous 145 points across Gaza as soon as possible.
Residents said prices for essential goods soared on Sunday after Israeli strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians. Israel also threatened to halt humanitarian aid.
Mohamed al-Faqawi, a Khan Younis resident, accused merchants of taking advantage of the perilous security situation. “Our concern stems from the wicked merchants,” he said. “They are exploiting us.”
On Monday, Hamas-run security forces raided shops across Gaza, closing at least 10 shops and warehouses, and forcing merchants to lower prices, according to a unit of Hamas focused on stopping collaboration with Israel and price gouging.
Nahed Sheheiber, head of Gaza’s private truckers’ union, said there was no stealing aid since the ceasefire started. “Trucks drive safely,” he said.
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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