Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Under Pressure

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00:00U.S. President Donald Trump says the Israel-Hamas ceasefire is still in place despite Gaza strikes.

00:05Israel launched strikes against Hamas after blaming the group for a lethal ambush that left two soldiers dead.

00:11Israel also says it has halted the transfer of aid into Gaza until further notice.

00:17Well, we're going to have to see what's happening.

00:19We want to make sure that it's going to be very peaceful with Hamas.

00:23And as you know, they've been quite rambunctious.

00:27They've been doing some shooting and we think maybe the leadership isn't involved in that, you know, some rebels within.

00:34But either way, it's going to be it's going to be handled properly.

00:40Let's go to Jerusalem now and speak with Bloomberg's Dan Williams.

00:43So once again, an intensification of violence over the weekend, Dan.

00:47I guess the question is, is the ceasefire still actually holding?

00:52The simple answer is yes, although it faced its most serious threat this weekend.

00:58That ceasefire, as you know, is only 10 days old.

01:01And it's not a deal in itself, although a momentous achievement in terms of what it brought to Israelis and Palestinians

01:08and the prestige it brought to President Trump, the architects.

01:12That ceasefire is meant to lead to a much wider deal, a much more permanent deal, a peace deal, a Middle East peace deal.

01:17As envisaged by Trump, that may be a tall order.

01:21And it would seem that preserving the ceasefire may also be a tall order.

01:25For now, it's intact.

01:27But for about 12 hours over Sunday, it really did feel like it was a threat.

01:31With the killing of those two soldiers, wounding of another in a Palestinian attack that the Israelis blamed on Hamas

01:38and drawing retaliatory airstrikes by Israel across the Gaza Strip, dozens of them, killing, we're told, dozens of Palestinians.

01:46Israel says the targets were Hamas targets, including a tunnel that had been used for hostages.

01:51However, it ended with the Israelis saying they are back at the ceasefire.

01:56Hamas says it respects the ceasefire and is committed to it.

01:59And it would appear that the Americans feel fairly satisfied that they've drawn a line under this story episode.

02:04Yes, well, the Americans clearly, and President Trump himself, has a vested interest in keeping the ceasefire going.

02:12What efforts are the U.S., and there's a U.S. delegation heading to the region again this week,

02:18are they undertaking to ensure that the ceasefire remains in place?

02:22First of all, there's the status of the delegation, we're told, but not just Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner,

02:28the senior envoys who've been regular visitors to this part of the world in recent months.

02:32Apparently, the U.S. Vice President, J.D. Vance, is also planning to come.

02:36Now, that hasn't been confirmed by the White House yet,

02:39but the very fact it's being discussed would signal U.S. seriousness about preserving this deal

02:44and finding a way to prod it ahead.

02:46In parallel, the various stakeholders, regional powers, European powers who've signed on to Trump's peace plan,

02:52are setting up a task force, a group of military officers,

02:56whose job is to monitor progress on the ceasefire, monitor progress toward implementation of the deal.

03:03A lot of moving parts, a lot of players there, a lot of disparate actions,

03:08with senior players trying to synthesize it in the hope that a good conclusion will be brought about,

03:14more or less, as set up in that Trump peace plan.