US President Donald Trump on Thursday said the living hostages held in Gaza will be released early next week, and that he hopes to attend a ceasefire signing ceremony in Egypt.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting at the White House, Mr Trump hailed a “momentous breakthrough”.
“Getting them is a complicated process … but we are getting the hostages back on Tuesday, Monday or Tuesday,” he said. “And that’ll be a day of joy.”
Despite deep uncertainty, officials appeared poised to begin the implementation of Mr Trump's peace deal in Gaza that would end the war and provide for the release of the 48 hostages held by Hamas, of whom only 20 are believed to be alive, in exchange for the freedom of hundreds of Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
The plan calls for Hamas to disarm, and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. “We ended the war in Gaza, and really, on a much bigger basis, created peace, and I think it's going to be a lasting peace, hopefully an everlasting peace in the Middle East,” he said.
The development comes two years after Hamas militants attacked Israel, starting a brutal war that has devastated Gaza, dominated global politics and unleashed seismic shifts across the Middle East. Negotiations attended by representatives of the warring sides as well as mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar began in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheikh on Monday.
The US's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner were in Egypt on Wednesday, representing the US delegation. “We're going to go to Egypt, where we'll have a signing, an additional sign, and we've already had a signing, representing me, but we're going to have an official signing,” Mr Trump added.
He later added that he had also been invited to speak at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. "They've asked me to speak at the Knesset, and you know, I've agreed to. If they would like me to, I will do it," he said.
The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 more abducted. More than 67,200 Palestinians have been killed in the coastal enclave and nearly 170,000 injured, according to local health officials, and most of the territory devastated.
“From the Hamas standpoint, they probably lost 70,000 people – that's big retribution,” Mr Trump said. Mr Trump said the war-ravaged enclave would be rebuilt with funding from wealthy countries in the region.
“Gaza is going to be slowly redone,” Mr Trump said. “You have tremendous wealth in that part of the world by certain countries. Just a small part of that, what they make, will do wonders for Gaza, and I think you’re going to see some tremendous countries stepping up and putting up a lot of money and taking care of things.”
Asked by a journalist about the possibility of a two-state solution following the ceasefire and hostage deal, Mr Trump responded: "I don't have a view. I'm going to go with what they agreed to."
