SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — President Donald Trump proclaimed a “tremendous day for the Middle East” on Monday as he joined leaders from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey in signing a declaration aimed at solidifying a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, just hours after Israel and Hamas completed a major exchange of hostages and prisoners that brought a measure of relief to families torn apart by two years of war.
The signing capped Trump’s whirlwind regional tour, which began with a brief stop in Israel where he addressed parliament and praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his role in the deal. From there, Trump jetted to this Red Sea resort for the Gaza summit, where more than two dozen world leaders gathered under tight security to endorse the agreement.
“This is a tremendous day for the world, it’s a tremendous day for the Middle East,” Trump said, his voice booming over the assembled dignitaries. Later, in a triumphant speech, he added, “At long last, we have peace in the Middle East,” claiming the group had “achieved what everybody said was impossible.”
The declaration, a nonbinding but symbolic pledge, commits the signatories to “pursue a comprehensive vision of peace, security and shared prosperity in the region” and hails “the progress achieved in establishing comprehensive and durable peace arrangements in the Gaza Strip.” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, hosting the event, called the Gaza deal a milestone that “closes a painful chapter in human history” and paves the way for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
The fanfare followed a pivotal swap under Trump’s blueprint to end the conflict, triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that killed about 1,200 people in Israel and led to the abduction of 251 hostages. On Monday, Hamas released the final 20 surviving captives it had held for two years in Gaza’s labyrinth of tunnels and hideouts — mostly women, children and elderly men whose faces had become symbols of the war’s human toll.
In return, Israel’s prison service reported freeing 1,968 detainees, the vast majority Palestinians held on security charges ranging from stone-throwing to convictions for deadly attacks. The exchange, facilitated by the Red Cross, unfolded in scenes of raw emotion: tearful reunions at border crossings, families clutching photos of the missing, and crowds in Gaza and the West Bank waving flags in cautious celebration.
The truce, agreed last week, slammed the brakes on Israel’s ferocious push into Gaza City, an offensive that had been claiming scores of lives daily amid relentless airstrikes and ground clashes. Since the halt, tens of thousands of Palestinians have trickled back to the enclave’s shattered neighborhoods, where entire blocks lie in rubble from a bombardment that Gaza health officials say has killed more than 68,000 people and displaced nearly all of the strip’s 2.3 million residents.
Yet even as leaders toasted the breakthrough, daunting hurdles loomed large. Among the most urgent: the recovery of remains from 26 Israeli hostages believed killed during the war, plus two whose fates remain unknown. Hamas acknowledged the challenge, noting that not all burial sites are mapped out, but said it would begin handing over bodies Monday. Israel’s military confirmed receipt of the first two, with an official reporting two more delivered later in the day.
Humanitarian needs scream for attention in Gaza, where the United Nations warns of famine stalking hundreds of thousands. U.N. aid chief Tom Fletcher urged an immediate surge in supplies, saying, “We need to get shelter and fuel to people who desperately need it and to massively scale up the food and medicine and other supplies going in.”
Deeper questions about Gaza’s future governance and security hang unresolved. Who will police the streets? How to rebuild a territory reduced to wasteland? And what of Hamas, which rebuffs Israel’s insistence on full disarmament? The group wasted no time asserting control after Israel’s partial withdrawal, launching a security sweep in Gaza City that a Palestinian source said left 32 members of a rival faction dead.
Trump, en route to the region aboard Air Force One, addressed the Hamas role bluntly: “They do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time” to maintain order, calling it a temporary measure.
The Gaza war’s ripples have redrawn the Middle East’s fault lines, fueling a 12-day Israeli air campaign against Iran that inflicted heavy damage on Tehran’s nuclear and military sites, alongside operations crippling Iran’s proxies — Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, whose missile barrages once terrorized Red Sea shipping.
Trump, framing his Gaza initiative as a launchpad for broader accords, even dangled the prospect of reconciliation between sworn foes Iran and Israel during his Knesset speech. “Wouldn’t it be nice?” he mused, suggesting Tehran might be open to a deal — a notion met with skeptical murmurs in Jerusalem and outright dismissal from Tehran.
For now, the Sharm el-Sheikh summit offers a sliver of optimism in a conflict that has defied peacemakers for decades. As Trump departed, el-Sissi hosted a working dinner for the Arab leaders, vowing to press forward on reconstruction and refugee returns. But with aid convoys stalled at checkpoints and whispers of skirmishes along the frontier, the declaration’s lofty words will be tested in the gritty days ahead — a reminder that in the Middle East, ceasefires are fragile, and peace is always provisional. (source: Agencies)
