Updated October 13, 2025 at 12:20 PM AKDT
TEL AVIV — President Trump declared the Gaza war over and received a standing ovation in Israel's parliament then in Egypt at a signing ceremony on Monday for his leading role in bringing about a ceasefire in the war-ravaged territory.
In a crucial part of the agreement, Hamas released the last 20 living Israeli hostages who had been captive for just over two years.
In turn, Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Most of the Palestinians were taken from Israeli prisons, placed on buses, and driven to either Gaza or the West Bank. They were greeted by cheering crowds, along with hugs from friends and family. Israel was also sending some abroad, effectively placing them in exile.
The released Palestinians included some who had been convicted of killings and imprisoned for decades, though most had been detained without charge during the past two years of fighting.
Trump calls it a new era
"This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East," Trump told the members of Israel's parliament, the Knesset.
"Generations from now, this will be remembered as the moment that everything began to change, and change very much for the better," Trump said in a speech frequently punctuated with applause. "Like the U.S.A. right now, it will be the golden age of Israel and the golden age of the Middle East."
Israeli lawmakers chanted Trump's name, and he received a prolonged standing ovation at the end of his lengthy speech filled with grandiose language.
Since taking effect Friday, the ceasefire has been holding after the deadliest fighting ever between Israelis and Palestinians. And if Israel and Hamas can complete the exchange of prisoners and hostages as outlined in the agreement, that should provide additional momentum for an agreement that still faces many obstacles.
Trump is a staunch backer of Israel, though he put considerable pressure on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the ceasefire proposal. Trump also leaned on Arab countries, like Egypt and Qatar, to get Hamas to agree to the truce.
Speaking before Trump, Netanyahu called the U.S. president "the greatest friend that the State of Israel has ever had in the White House."
The handover of hostages
In the hours before Trump spoke, Hamas handed over the 20 Israeli hostages, in two separate groups, to the International Committee of the Red Cross inside Gaza. The Red Cross then delivered the hostages to the Israeli military, which whisked them out of the territory to a military base in southern Israel. From there, they were flown by helicopter to hospitals in the Tel Aviv area.
All the hostages were men, and all were in their 20s and 30s, except for one, who was in his 40s.
Israeli television showed Einav Zangauker speaking to her son, Matan Zangauker, 25, in a video call shortly after his release. "There's no war, it's over. You are coming home," she told him.
Pictures released by the Israel Defense Forces showed smiling hostages being reunited with their families. A video showed the moment hostage Eitan Mor, 25, was reunited with his family as his father hugged him and wept loudly.
The hostage handover ignited celebrations throughout Israel. Tens of thousands gathered in Hostages Square, the plaza in Tel Aviv that has been the site of vigils throughout the war. The crowd roared in jubilation and waved blue-and-white Israeli flags.
Hamas is also required to hand over 28 bodies of dead hostages, though the Palestinian group says it has not been able to locate all of them.
The Israeli military said four coffins containing deceased hostages had been escorted out of Gaza for identification at a forensic medicine center. Before leaving the Palestinian territory they were draped with Israeli flags, while Israeli soldiers saluted.
After the brief visit to Israel, Trump flew to Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, where the truce was negotiated last week, to take part in a formal signing ceremony.
Leaders from Israel and Hamas were not invited initially.
Egypt extended a last-minute invitation to Netanyahu on Monday, but he declined, citing a Jewish holiday.
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, joined leaders from more than 20 nations as they gathered around Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who spoke first.
El-Sisi called the moment "the birth of a glimmer of hope that this agreement will close a painful chapter in human history and open the door to a new era of peace and stability in the Middle East," adding that it could offer "a better tomorrow for the peoples of the region, exhausted by conflict."
A beaming President Trump took to the podium after a standing ovation, flanked by the leaders of Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada and the U.N. Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.
"This is the day that people across the region and around the world have been working, striving, hoping and praying for," Trump told the assembled dignitaries.
"With the historic agreement we have just signed, those prayers of millions have finally been answered."
Trump went on to assert that peace in the region had now been achieved, after years of talking about it, and that as civilians in Gaza were returning to their homes, humanitarian aid was now "pouring in, including hundreds of truckloads of food, medical equipment and other supplies, much of it paid for by people in this room."
Essentials in Gaza have been in critically short supply throughout the war, and the significant increase in aid began to enter southern Gaza from Egypt on Sunday. The territory is in urgent need of food, water, medicine, fuel and tents.
Test for the ceasefire
While the ceasefire is off to a good start, many larger questions have not been resolved.
Israeli troops pulled back on Friday, but still hold roughly half of Gaza. They are eventually supposed to carry out additional pullbacks, but there's no timetable for their full withdrawal.
The ceasefire also calls for Hamas to give up its weapons and play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Hamas has not publicly agreed to this, and Hamas civilian police have already re-emerged on the streets of the territory. There is currently no other Palestinian group in Gaza that is capable of ruling the territory.
The ceasefire calls for a group of Palestinian technocrats to run Gaza on an interim basis, but they have not been named and it is not clear what kind of authority they would have, if any.
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