Hamas freed the last living Israeli hostages from Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal and Israel sent home busloads of Palestinian detainees, as US President Donald Trump declared an end to the two-year war that has upended the entire Middle East.
Hours later, Trump summoned Muslim and European leaders to Egypt to discuss the future of Gaza and the possibility of broader regional peace, although Hamas and Israel, both absent from the meeting, have yet to agree on next steps.
The Israeli army said it received the 20 hostages confirmed alive, after their transfer from Gaza by the Red Cross. The announcement sparked cheers, hugs and tears among thousands of people waiting in Tel Aviv’s “Hostage Square.”
In Gaza, thousands of relatives, many crying with joy, gathered at a hospital where buses took home some of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees who were to be released by Israel under the deal.
“The skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are silent and the sun rises over a Holy Land that is finally at peace,” Trump told the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, saying a “long nightmare” for Israelis and Palestinians was over.
The United States, alongside Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, negotiated what was described as a first-phase deal between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and the release of hostages by Hamas and prisoners and detainees by Israel.
Later Monday, in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Trump and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hosted more than 20 world leaders for a summit intended to cement the truce.
At the summit’s opening, Trump signed a document with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey welcoming the Gaza accords and pledging to “work collectively to implement and maintain this legacy.”
The Egyptian presidency said the discussions included governance, security and the reconstruction of Gaza.
“Now the rebuilding begins,” Trump said at the summit, delivering a lengthy speech in which he described in grandiose terms the Gaza deal he helped broker, saying it could be “the greatest deal of all.”
Israel and Hamas were not represented at the summit, while the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were not present.
Trump at one point greeted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who spoke at length with the US leader. The Palestinian Authority wants to play a significant role in the future administration of Gaza, despite Israel’s objections.
Formidable obstacles remain
The Israeli hostages released Monday were the last still alive in captivity among the 251 captured during the attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people and sparked the war.
The ceasefire and partial Israeli withdrawal agreed last week ended one of the largest Israeli offensives of the war, an all-out attack on Gaza City that killed dozens of people every day.
Since then, large numbers of Palestinians have been able to return to the ruins of their homes in Gaza, much of which was reduced to wasteland by Israeli bombings that killed 68,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.
Formidable obstacles remain even to securing a lasting ceasefire, let alone achieving a broader, more lasting peace. Among the immediate issues that remain to be resolved: recovering the remains of 26 other Israeli hostages believed to have died and two whose fate is unknown.
Hamas says recovering the bodies could take time because not all burial sites are known. The Israeli military said it had escorted four coffins containing the remains of deceased hostages to Israel and that the remains were being identified.
Aid must be urgently transported to the enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people face starvation. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher stressed the need to “provide shelter and fuel to people who desperately need it and to massively increase the supply of food, medicine and other supplies.”
Beyond that, crucial questions still need to be resolved, including how to govern and control Gaza, and the ultimate future of Hamas, which still rejects Israel’s demands for disarmament.
Hamas gunmen, seeking to assert their presence, launched a crackdown in Gaza City after Israel’s withdrawal, killing 32 members of a rival group, a Palestinian security source said.
Tensions have also increased in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Jewish settlements have grown on land that Palestinians envision as part of a future state.
Trump, speaking on his flight to the region, said Hamas had been given a temporary green light for fighters to maintain order: “They want to end the problems, and they’ve been open about that, and we’ve given them our approval for a while.”
The Gaza war has also reshaped the Middle East through spillover conflicts, with Israel inflicting massive damage in a 12-day war against Iran and campaigns against Tehran’s regional allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis.
Trump, who has presented his plan to end the war in Gaza as the catalyst for a broad regional peace deal, said more countries would join the Abraham Accords initiative and even floated the idea of a peace deal between Iran and Israel, the Middle East’s main foes, telling the Knesset he thought Iran wanted one: “Wouldn’t that be nice?”
JOY, RELIEF ON BOTH SIDES
Beaming with relief and joy, two freed hostages waved to the cheering crowd from vans en route to an Israeli hospital, one hoisting a large Israeli flag then forming a heart with his hands.
Video footage captured emotional scenes of families receiving phone messages from their loved ones as they were released, their faces lighting up with disbelief and hope after months of anguish.
“I’m so excited. I’m full of happiness. It’s hard to imagine how I feel right now. I haven’t slept all night,” said Viki Cohen, the mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, as she traveled to Reim, an Israeli military camp where the hostages were being transferred.
Meanwhile, Palestinians rushed to embrace the prisoners released by Israel. Several thousand people gathered in and around Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, some waving Palestinian flags, others holding photos of their loved ones.
“I am happy for our sons who are freed, but we still suffer for all those who were killed by the occupation and for all the destruction that took place in our Gaza,” Gaza woman Um Ahmed told Reuters in a tearful voice message.
The freed prisoners arrived on buses, some of them posing from windows, holding V for Victory signs. The appearance of armed and masked Hamas fighters on site highlighted the difficulty of responding to Israel’s demand to disarm.
Israel was to release 1,700 detainees captured in Gaza, as well as 250 prisoners from its prisons convicted or suspected of security offenses, including attacks against Israelis.
