SHARM EL SHEIKH: US President Donald Trump hailed a "tremendous day for the Middle East" as he and regional leaders signed a declaration Monday meant to cement a ceasefire in Gaza, hours after Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages and prisoners.
Trump made a lightning visit to Israel, where he lauded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an address to parliament, before flying to Egypt for a Gaza summit where he and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey signed the declaration as guarantors to the Gaza deal.
"This is a tremendous day for the world, it's a tremendous day for the Middle East," Trump said as more than two dozen world leaders sat down to talk in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
"The document is going to spell out rules and regulations and lots of other things," Trump said before signing, repeating twice that "it's going to hold up." "This took 3,000 years to get to this point," Trump said.
Trump described the gathering as “probably the greatest assemblage of countries in terms of wealth and power maybe ever assembled, and it’s just an honour to be a part of it”.
The summit, co-chaired by Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, included world leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Jordan’s King Abdullah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, European Council President Antonio Costa and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.
India was represented by Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh after Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a last-minute invitation from US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
After signing of the deal, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said they will award US President Donald Trump "the order of the Nile, the highest state honour among the Egyptian decorations."
Earlier, President El-Sisi had praised Trump’s role in brokering the deal, saying, “Your excellency is the only one capable of bringing this about and bringing an end to this war. You are the only one who is able to bring about peace and achieve peace in this part of the world. Thank you, Mr President!!”
As part of Trump's plan to end the Gaza war, Hamas on Monday freed the last 20 surviving hostages it held after two years of captivity in Gaza.
In exchange, Israel released 1,968 mostly Palestinian prisoners held in its jails, its prison service said.
"From October 7 until this week, Israel has been a nation at war, enduring burdens that only a proud and faithful people could withstand," Trump told lawmakers during an address to Israel's parliament, where he received a lengthy standing ovation upon his arrival.
"For so many families across this land, it has been years since you've known a single day of true peace," he continued. "Not only for Israelis, but also for Palestinians and for many others, the long and painful nightmare is finally over."
Emotion and sadness
"Welcome home," Israel's foreign ministry said in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of the hostages. On Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, Noga shared her pain and joy.
"I'm torn between emotion and sadness for those who won't be coming back," she said.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas is also due to return the bodies of 27 hostages who died or were killed in captivity, as well as the remains of a soldier killed in 2014 during a previous Gaza conflict.
Israel has said it does not expect all of the dead hostages to be returned on Monday, though the army said it had received the bodies of two captives that were handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas, and that it was still expecting the remains of two more.
Of the prisoners it freed in return, around 250 were security detainees, including many convicted of killing Israelis, while about 1,700 were taken into custody by the Israeli army in Gaza during the war.
On October 7, 2023, militants seized 251 hostages during Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel, which led to the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians.
All but 47 of those hostages were freed in earlier truces, with the families of those who have remained in captivity leading lives of constant pain and worry for their loved ones.
A new birth
In Gaza, too, the ceasefire has brought relief, but with much of the territory flattened by war, the road to recovery remains long.
"The greatest joy is seeing my whole family gathered to welcome me," Yusef Afana, a 25-year-old released prisoner from north Gaza, told AFP in Khan Yunis.
"I spent 10 months in prison -- some of the hardest days I've ever lived."
In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, meanwhile, Palestinian prisoners released by Israel were met by a cheering crowd so dense that they struggled to get off the bus that delivered them from jail.
"It's an indescribable feeling, a new birth," newly released Mahdi Ramadan told AFP, flanked by his parents.
Trump's visit to the Middle East aims to celebrate his role in brokering last week's ceasefire and hostage release deal -- but much remains to be negotiated.
Among the potential sticking points are Hamas's refusal to disarm and Israel's failure to pledge full withdrawal from the devastated territory.
The US leader, however, repeatedly signalled he was confident the ceasefire will hold, saying at a joint appearance with Sisi in Sharm el-Sheikh that talks on the next steps of the plan were underway.
"It's started, as far as we're concerned, phase 2 has started," he said.
"The phases are all a little bit mixed in with each other," he added.
Trump announced in late September a 20-point plan for Gaza, which helped bring about the ceasefire.
At his appearance with Sisi, he lauded the Egyptian leader as having been "very instrumental" in talks with Hamas.
Sisi, for his part, said Trump was the "only one capable of bringing peace to our region".
Trump also briefly met with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at the summit, which representatives of Israel and Hamas did not attend.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem on Monday urged Trump and the mediators of the Gaza deal to "continue monitoring Israel's conduct and to ensure it does not resume its aggression against our people".
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 67,869 people, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers credible.
The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.
