President Trump declared the end of the war in Gaza and received a standing ovation in the Israeli parliament on Monday for his leadership role in securing a ceasefire in the war-torn territory.
In a crucial part of the deal, Hamas released the last 20 living Israeli hostages, who had been held for just over two years.
In exchange, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Most of the Palestinians were taken from Israeli prisons, put on buses, and taken to Gaza or the West Bank. They were greeted by enthusiastic crowds, along with hugs from friends and family. Israel was also sending some abroad, effectively putting them into exile.
The released Palestinians included some convicted of murders who had been imprisoned for decades. Most were detained without charge during the last two years of conflict.
Trump calls this a new era
“This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East,” Trump said to members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.
“In generations to come, this will be remembered as the moment when everything began to change, and change very much for the better,” Trump said in a speech frequently punctuated by applause. “Just as for the US now, it will be Israel’s golden age and the golden age of the Middle East.”
Israeli parliamentarians chanted Trump’s name, and he received a long standing ovation at the end of his long speech full of pompous language.
Since it went into effect on Friday, the ceasefire has held after the deadliest fighting in history between Israelis and Palestinians. And if Israel and Hamas manage to complete the prisoner and hostage exchange as described in the agreement, this should give an additional boost to a deal that still faces many obstacles.
Trump is a staunch supporter of Israel, although he considerably pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire proposal. Trump also pressured Arab countries, such as Egypt and Qatar, for Hamas to agree to the truce.
Speaking before Trump, Netanyahu called the American president “the greatest friend the State of Israel has ever had in the White House”.
The handover of the hostages
In the hours leading up to Trump’s speech, Hamas handed over the 20 Israeli hostages, in two separate groups, to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza. The Red Cross then delivered the hostages to the Israeli military, who took them out of the territory to a military base in southern Israel. From there, they were helicoptered to hospitals in the Tel Aviv area.
All the hostages were men, all in their 20s and 30s, except one who was about 40 years old.
Israeli television showed Einav Zangauker talking to her son, 25-year-old Matan Zangauker, on a video call shortly after his release. “There’s no war anymore, it’s over. You’re coming home,” she told him.
Photos released by the Israel Defense Forces showed smiling hostages reuniting with their families. A video showed the moment when 25-year-old hostage Eitan Mor was reunited with his family as his father hugged him and sobbed loudly.
The handover of the hostages triggered celebrations across Israel. Tens of thousands gathered in Hostage Square, the square in Tel Aviv that has been the site of vigils throughout the war. The crowd roared in joy and waved blue and white Israeli flags.
Hamas is also supposed to hand over 28 bodies of dead hostages, although the Palestinian group claims it has not been able to locate all of them.
After the brief visit to Israel, Trump was to fly to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where the truce was negotiated last week, to attend a formal signing ceremony.
Leaders from more than 20 countries are expected to attend. However, leaders from Israel and Hamas were not initially invited. Egypt extended a last-minute invitation to Netanyahu on Monday, but he declined, citing a Jewish holiday.
The Egyptian government said that Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which administers Palestinian areas in the West Bank, would participate.
On his flight to Israel on Air Force One, Trump described the ceasefire as a victory for the countries in the region.
“Everyone is happy, whether Jews, Muslims, or the Arab countries. All countries are dancing in the streets,” he said.
On another front, increased aid is beginning to flow into Gaza, where essentials have been extremely scarce during the war. Hundreds of trucks with assistance entered southern Gaza from Egypt on Sunday. The territory urgently needs food, water, medicine, fuel, and tents.
Test for the ceasefire
Although the ceasefire has started well, many larger issues remain unresolved.
Israeli troops pulled back on Friday, but still control about half of Gaza. They are to carry out additional withdrawals, but there is no timetable for full withdrawal.
The ceasefire also requires Hamas to hand over its weapons and play no role in Gaza’s future governance. Hamas has not publicly agreed to this, and Hamas civilian police have already reappeared on the territory’s streets. Currently, there is no other Palestinian group in Gaza capable of governing the territory.
The ceasefire requires a group of Palestinian technocrats to govern Gaza interimly, but they have not been appointed and it is unclear what authority they would have, if any.
Source: npr.org by Greg Myre, Daniel Estrin