President Donald Trump said Monday the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas will be the start of a lasting period of peace in the Middle East region as he joined leaders from nearly 30 countries for a signing ceremony in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.
The president said the deal, which took effect over the weekend and saw the remaining 20 living hostages that had been held by Hamas returned to Israeli soil after more than two years in captivity, represents a “new and beautiful day” that was “rising” in the region, to be followed by a rebuilding process funded by multiple Arab states.
Referencing his own background as a real estate developer and hotelier and the prolific construction in many of the oil-rich Persian Gulf states, Trump said the rebuilding of the Gaza Strip following Israeli bombardment that has seen most of the area’s habitable buildings reduced to rubble “is maybe going to be the easiest part.”
“I think we’ve done a lot of the hardest part because the rest comes together. We all know how to rebuild, and we know how to build better than anybody in the world,” he said.
The president’s remarks made for an awkward scene, with many of the heads of state and government that had flown to Egypt for the proceedings standing uncomfortably behind him as he rattled off a list of those present, offering up fulsome praise for some of the wealthy Arab monarchs that were in attendance.
“It’s perhaps the wealthiest and most powerful group of nations ever assembled at one time, which is a big thing we have achieved together in recent days, a change that really is historic, and it’s going to be remembered forever.” he said.
As he ran down the list, much like a master of ceremonies at an American wedding, he offered random asides about many of the leaders present or the nations they represented.
Iraq, he said has “lots of oil … so much oil, they don’t know what to do with it.”
“That’s a big problem,” he added.
He also remarked on Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s appearance, calling her “beautiful” and suggesting that praising a woman’s beauty in the United States could be the end of his political career.
“She wanted to be here, and she’s incredible, and they really respect her. In Italy, she’s, she’s a very successful, very successful politician,” he added.
When he got to Norway on the list, he commented on the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s failure to award him the Nobel Peace Prize last week.
“Oh, Norway, Norway … what happened?” he said.
Reaching the end of his list, he praised the assembled leaders for having come on relatively short notice to the last-minute gathering, telling the audience: “These people all came on like 20 minutes notice, and I think it’s fantastic.”
Returning to the subject at hand, Trump hailed the peace agreement that he and other leaders had signed earlier in the evening as a “momentous breakthrough” and “the new beginning for an entire beautiful Middle East” while recalling how the process that led to Monday’s ceremony had begun just three weeks earlier at a meeting of Arab and Muslim leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Days later, he unveiled a 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — a notable absence from the ceremony’s roster who had declined to attend despite having been invited by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
“I met with many of the people in this room, and it all just started coming together … we listened and we exchanged ideas, and we kept pushing forward until the job was done,” Trump said.
Turning back to the subject of rebuilding Gaza from the rubble it has been reduced to by the Israeli Defense Force over the last two years, Trump said the focus of Gaza’s population “must be on restoring the basics of a good life.”
“We’re going to have a lot of money coming into Gaza, and a lot of rebuilding and building. It’s not so much rebuilding, it’s really building, cleaning up and building,” Trump said.
He added that he was “pleased” to announce that “numerous countries of great wealth and power and dignity” — countries he declined to identify by name — had pledge to help reconstruct Gaza by “putting up whatever money is necessary.”
“It’s a lot of money, but it’s not much compared to the value or the wealth of these tremendous countries, and they are ensuring stability and success in the Middle East,” he said.
“And as those commitments are made, I’m going to let the world know who is doing it, because they really deserve great credit for doing it, and they’re going to do something that’s really monumental.”
Although it wasn’t clear what Trump and the other leaders had signed earlier, the nuts and bolts of the proposal Trump rolled out alongside Netanyahu at the White House earlier this month largely track a peace plan that has been shopped around the Middle East in recent months by former British prime minister Tony Blair with the backing of Trump’s roving special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law and former senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
As of Monday evening, the first phase of the plan had been largely completed, including the following steps:
- A ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces to the agreed upon line to prepare for a hostage release.
- The return of all living hostages and the return of remains of deceased ones un exchange for Israel releasing 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Gazans who were detained after Oct. 7, 2023, including all women and children detained in that context.
The agreement also states that Hamas militants who agree to “commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons” will receive amnesty and any who want to leave Gaza would be granted passage to as-yet unspecified “receiving countries.”
The plan also calls for aid to Gaza to resume with the minimum level of aid consistent with the temporary ceasefire deal reached by the outgoing Biden and incoming Trump administration representatives this past January. Israel would also agree not to interfere with aid distribution by the Red Crescent and United Nations plus “other international institutions not associated in any manner with either party.”
The task of running Gaza would then fall to a “temporary transitional governance of a technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for delivering the day-to-day running of public services and municipalities for the people in Gaza” and made up of “qualified Palestinians and international experts.”
That committee would in turn be supervised by a “Board of Peace” to be chaired by Trump and include Blair as well as other “other members and heads of State to be announced.” According to the plan, the board would “set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza” until the Palestinian Authority meets conditions laid out in a plan put forth by Trump during his first term.
It’s not yet known who will serve on the “Board of Peace” aside from Trump and Blair, but the president suggested “everybody” he’s talked to has expressed interest in serving.
“So we’re probably going to enlarge it. We’re going to get and the leaders, the top people, the top leaders, they want to be on the board of peace,” he said.
Trump added that the leaders had agreed that Gaza will need a “new, honest civilian police force” to “create a safe condition” for Gaza’s population, and said the United States would “be a partner” for “securing a better future” in Gaza.
“We’re going to be working you’re going to be working with the United States, and we’re going to make sure that the Middle East is going to be a safe and secure place,” he said.
