US President Donald Trump threatened to "eradicate" Hamas if it breached its ceasefire deal with Israel, as vice president JD Vance travelled to the region Tuesday to bolster the fragile Gaza truce.
The Trump administration has redoubled its efforts to cement the fragile Gaza peace agreement it helped to broker, after Israel accused Hamas of stalling the handover of hostages' bodies and deadly violence flared up in the territory over the weekend.
"We made a deal with Hamas that they're going to be very good, they're going to behave, they're going to be nice," Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday (AEDT) as he hosted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
"If they're not, we're going to go and we're going to eradicate them, if we have to. They'll be eradicated, and they know that."
Both sides have said they are committed to the US-backed truce despite the weekend's violence, and Israel confirmed that Hamas handed over the body of a hostage on Monday, taking the total to 13 of the 28 it had pledged to return.
Israel said on Tuesday the latest remains were those of Tal Chaimi, a non-commissioned officer killed on 7 October 2023.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that Hamas had to make good on its commitment to return the remains of all the hostages in order to implement the ceasefire agreement.
"We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them," the statement said.
Hamas has said it is still committed to the ceasefire agreement but needs more time and technical assistance to complete the recovery of the bodies.
"We are finding it extremely difficult to extract the bodies, but we are serious and working hard to extract them," top Hamas negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya told Egypt's Al-Qahera News in a segment broadcast on Tuesday morning.
"The Gaza agreement will hold, because we want it to and our will to abide by it is strong."
Vance was set to arrive in Israel on Tuesday, where Netanyahu said he would hold discussions on "two things... the security challenges we face and the diplomatic opportunities before us".
The ceasefire, which went into effect on 10 October, established an outline for hostage and prisoner exchanges, and proposed an ambitious roadmap for Gaza's future. But its implementation has quickly faced challenges.
Israel carried out dozens of strikes in Gaza on Sunday using 153 tonnes of explosives, according to Netanyahu, targeting Hamas after two Israeli soldiers were killed in the territory's south.
Gaza's civil defence agency said the strikes killed at least 45 people across the territory.
The Israeli prime minister accused the militant group of "a blatant violation" of the ceasefire, an accusation it denied.
Trump said US forces would not be involved against Hamas, but added that "Israel would go in in two minutes, if I asked them to go in.
"But right now, we haven't said that. We're going to give it a little chance."
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