Vice President JD Vance suggested on Sunday that U.S. troops in Israel will play a limited role in implementing the Gaza ceasefire.
On Thursday, U.S. officials told the Associated Press that about 200 troops will help support and monitor the deal that ends two years of fighting between Hamas and Israel.
U.S. Central Command will set up a “civil-military coordination center” in Israel for logistical and security assistance to help expedite humanitarian aid into Gaza.
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, Vance sought to clarify the reports and the participation of U.S. troops.
“We’re not planning to put boots on the ground,” he said. “What we already have is a U.S. Central Command. We already have people in that region of the world. They’re going to monitor the terms of the ceasefire. They’re going to monitor, ensure that the humanitarian aid is flowing.”
Meanwhile, U.S. troops have played a separate peacekeeping role for decades in the region as part of an international mission in the Sinai Peninsula that oversees the enforcement of the 1978 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
According to the Multinational Force and Observers, it currently has an authorized end-strength of 1163 troops from around the world, with 465 coming from the U.S.
The deployment of U.S. troops is a sensitive subject as President Donald Trump campaigned on ending “forever wars” and keeping the U.S. out of “endless” conflicts.
While Trump’s diplomacy achieved a breakthrough in the Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. bombing of Iran in June rattled some of his supporters who were wary of more military involvement in the Middle East, following the drawn-out wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Vance, who deployed to Iraq while serving in the Marine Corps, stressed on Sunday that U.S. troops would serve as monitors of the ceasefire.
“But the president is not planning to put boots on the ground in Israel,” he said.
U.S. officials also told the AP that no American service members will be sent into Gaza. At the same time, troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates will be embedded with U.S. forces, who will help coordinate the multinational contingent with Israel’s military.
Vance also said Sunday that Trump will travel to the Middle East to greet Israeli hostages being released by Hamas under the terms of the ceasefire the president negotiated.
“I really do think the lesson here is that Donald Trump refused to go down the failed traditional diplomatic pathway,” he said. “He cut his own Trump diplomatic pathway. And because of that, it was successful.”