Trump Declares Gaza War Over as Ceasefire Deal Sees Prisoner Swap, Regional Pledges

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump, joined by several regional leaders, signed a document on the Gaza ceasefire deal during a summit in Egypt, hailing the release of “Israeli” captives, as Hamas condemned the “harshest forms of sadism and fascism” endured by Palestinians freed from “Israeli” jails.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also signed the document on Monday in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

“This took 3,000 years to get to this point. Can you believe it? And it’s going to hold up too. It’s going to hold up,” Trump said while signing the document.

“This is the day that people around the region and across the world have been working, striving, hoping and praying for,” he added.

“Nobody thought this could happen,” Trump said, describing the Gaza ceasefire agreement as “historic”.

Trump continued his speech by declaring that “after years of suffering and bloodshed, the war in Gaza is over”.

“Humanitarian aid is now pouring in, including hundreds of truckloads of food, medical equipment and other supplies, much of it paid by people in this room,” he said.

The US president also extended his “tremendous gratitude to the Arab and Muslim nations who helped make this incredible breakthrough possible”.

The Egyptian president, in turn, thanked Trump and the leaders of Qatar and Turkey, reiterating his support for the Gaza plan in hopes of creating a “political horizon” toward the implementation of the so-called two-state solution in the “Israeli”-Palestinian conflict.

The signing ceremony followed Hamas’s return of the 20 remaining living captives in Gaza under phase one of the US-brokered deal, as well as four coffins containing the remains of dead captives. “Israel” released 250 Palestinian prisoners and more than 1,700 detainees from Gaza who had been held without charge.

In a statement on Monday, Hamas described “the liberation of prisoners as a national achievement and a shining milestone in our struggle”.

“Our freed prisoners revealed the most horrific forms of psychological and physical torture they were subjected to over two years, in a scene that embodies the harshest forms of sadism and fascism in the modern era,” the movement said.

The Palestinian resistance group called on human rights and humanitarian organizations to act regarding the “entity’s systematic crimes against prisoners”.

Trump announced on October 8 that “Israel” and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of his plan for a ceasefire and prisoner swap.

The deal followed four days of indirect talks between the two sides in Sharm El-Sheikh, with delegations from Turkey, Egypt and Qatar under US supervision.

Phase two of the agreement envisions a new governing framework in Gaza, a security force composed of Palestinians and troops from Arab and Muslim countries, and foreign-funded reconstruction led by Arab states.

Since October 2023, “Israeli” attacks have martyred more than 67,800 Palestinians in Gaza—most of them women and children—leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable.