Gaza truce news: Making the comments at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Mr. Vance reiterated that the U.S. and Israel were close allies and partners, not a hierarchy of a patron and a client.

“We don’t want a vassal state, and that’s not what Israel is,” Vance Gaza statement. “We don’t want a client state, and that’s not what Israel is. We want a partnership.”

The vice chairman’s visit to Israel came just over a week after President Trump’s visit to the country, a reflection of Washington’s violent focus on trying to insure stability in the region.

An Israeli Prime Minister’s Office spokesman verified that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be arriving in Israel on Thursday and holding meetings with Mr. Netanyahu. Rubio’s visit to Israel, coming after visits this week by Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and by presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, is the latest in a series of high-level visits by American officials that have come as fighting in Gaza has once again escalated, endangering the truce.

Still, Vance said that the coming days to implement the next phase of the US Israel policy 2025 would be difficult.

In the face of continuing tensions, with U.S. officials continuing to flow to Israel, Vance sought to assure Israeli leaders and the international community that Washington was not overstepping its role.

“We want a partnership,” he said, and not a “vassal state.”

The vice president’s remarks came amid a growing discussion over the proposed international security force in Gaza – a centerpiece of the Middle East peace talks. There have been growing concerns expressed in Israel about a security force that might constrain the freedom of Israeli operations in Gaza in the future.