“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas and rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” Vance said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Vance is in Israel to shore up support for the ceasefire and post-war reconstruction plans brokered by US President Donald Trump.

During a press conference on Tuesday in Kiryat Gat, a city in southern Israel where a US-led mission is monitoring the Gaza ceasefire, Vance expressed “great optimism” that the truce would hold.

He said Washington would not set a deadline for Hamas to disarm under the deal, despite concerns in Israel that the group has seized on the halt in fighting to reassert itself in Gaza.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu said ideas for “the day after” had been discussed.

“We’re just creating an unbelievable day after with a completely new vision of how to have the civil government, how to have the security there, who could provide that security there.”

“It’s not going to be easy, but I think it’s possible… we’re really creating a peace plan and an infrastructure here where nothing existed even a week and a day ago,” he said.

“That’s going to require a lot of work. It requires a lot of ingenuity.”

Vance said that the Gaza deal could also pave the way for broader alliances for Israel in the Middle East.

“I think this Gaza deal is a critical piece of unlocking the Abraham Accords,” Vance said, referring to the series of normalisation agreements between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020.

“But what it could allow is an alliance structure in the Middle East that perseveres, that endures, and that allows the good people in this region, the world, to step up and take ownership of their own backyard.”