"The ceasefire is holding. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be little skirmishes," Vance said in comments broadcast on Fox News and posted on social media by the White House.

"We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an IDF soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond -- but I think the president's peace is going to hold."

Gaza's civil defense agency said at least nine people were killed in strikes targeting several parts of the Palestinian territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier ordered "powerful strikes" on Gaza.

Vance was one of several top US officials to rush to Israel last week to shore up the fragile truce between Israel and Hamas that President Donald Trump brokered earlier this month.

Trump himself visited Israel and Egypt on October 13, taking a victory lap and declaring that "at long last, we have peace in the Middle East."