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Vance meets hostage families, tours City of David

The U.S. vice president described the period after the ceasefire-for-hostages deal concluded as “days of destiny” that are “changing the face of the Middle East.”

Netanyahu Vance
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference with U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, Oct. 22, 2025. Credit: Marc Israel Sellem/POOL.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance met on Wednesday with former hostages and the families of deceased hostages, who have not yet been returned from Gaza.

The meeting at Vance’s hotel in Jerusalem also included the vice president’s wife, Usha Vance, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and other relatives of victims of the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Earlier in the day, Vance met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog, with the U.S. vice president describing the period following the conclusion of the ceasefire-for-hostages deal with Hamas as “days of destiny” that are “changing the face of the Middle East.”

Vance ended his second day in Israel with a tour of the City of David archaeological site, which may be the location of the palace of the biblical King David.

“Thank you for preserving this piece of world history for all the people of Abraham to admire and be inspired,” Vance reportedly wrote in the archaeological site’s guestbook.

“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost—taking out three of yours.”
Crowds thronged the plaza at Judaism’s second-holiest site, with the event broadcast on giant screens along the Old City walls.
Israel’s national security minister said his party aims to facilitate the voluntary relocation of about 1.86 million Gazans within seven years.
Sam Raskin, a spokesman for the mayor, said that Mamdani talked to shoppers at Eichler’s and “heard directly from community members about the issues facing the neighborhood and how the administration can best support its residents.”