Vice President JD Vance gestures during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, October 22, 2025. Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Reuters

Vice President JD Vance left Israel on Thursday with an optimistic note, saying Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza strip, could be rebuilt in two to three years.

Vance said Palestinians should be able to move into a “Hamas free zone” in southern Gaza “in the next couple of months.”

He told reporters in Tel Aviv before he boarded Air Force Two that the hope is for people to be able to move back to Rafah. Vance said the reconstruction effort could start “very quickly” in areas not under Hamas control.

“You’re going to have first some people, and then more, and then hopefully in a co

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