President Donald Trump will depart for the Middle East on Sunday, where he intends to formally usher in the beginning of a ceasefire agreement that could end Israel’s two-year war in Gaza. A “peace summit” co-chaired by Trump and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, will coincide with the first phase of the plan, which includes the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, as well as the freeing of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
Trump convenes global leaders for Gaza summit
On Monday, Trump will co-host a summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh alongside el-Sissi and numerous other world leaders. Not included in the summit, for various reasons, are representatives from Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.
According to Israeli media, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it will not be attending the summit, but declined to explain why. The Palestinian Authority, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, will also be absent, despite asking el-Sissi for a seat at the table to stake its claim on representing Palestinian interests.
Download the SAN app today to stay up-to-date with Unbiased. Straight Facts™.
Point phone camera here
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Jordan’s King Abdullah II have all confirmed their attendance.
Numerous other delegations from around the world reportedly received invitations to attend, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Further invitations were extended by the U.S. State Department to Iran, Japan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Hungary, India, El Salvador, Cyprus, Greece, Bahrain, Kuwait and Canada. However, it is unclear how many will attend.
An Egyptian spokesperson said the goal of the summit is to “end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East and usher in a new era of regional security and stability.”
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were in Israel over the weekend to lay the groundwork for the meeting. On Sunday, the two visited “Hostages Square,” a site in Tel Aviv that has served as a memorial and space for demonstrations over the past two years.
“I dreamed of this night. It’s been a long journey,” Witkoff said to a crowd that numbered in the tens of thousands.
Following the summit in Egypt, Trump is expected to address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, making him the first U.S. president to do so since former President George W. Bush in 2008.
A path forward
For now, the fragile and tentative ceasefire has held. However, implementing numerous details from Trump’s 20-point plan still needs to be clarified and negotiated. But the first step –– which includes the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and the freeing of more than 1,000 prisoners in Israel’s custody –– is expected to proceed Monday or Tuesday.
The plan was agreed to by Israel and Hamas last Wednesday, and Israel formally ratified it on Thursday. On Friday, the ceasefire officially began, paving the way for a 72-hour window in which the hostages and prisoners would be exchanged.
Hamas is required to release all 20 of the hostages still believed to be alive. Roughly 28 more, believed to be dead, will be turned over later, as their bodies are buried under rubble, and it will take some time to locate them. After the hostage release, Israel is expected to release roughly 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israel and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.
Also included in the first step of the plan is a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, large swaths of which were pushed into famine due to Israel’s occupation of the region. Israel is expected to allow 600 trucks of aid each day, bringing the level that enters the Strip back to prewar levels. Tents, high-energy food for malnourished children and menstrual hygiene supplies will be prioritized, according to reporting from The Guardian.
If this phase goes through peacefully, negotiations will restart over the later stages of Trump’s peace plan.
“Knock on wood, but we feel very confident the hostages will be released, and that the President is actually traveling to the Middle East, likely this evening, in order to meet them and greet them in person,” Vice President JD Vance said during a Sunday appearance on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have already withdrawn to an agreed-upon line in Gaza, though the military still occupies more than half of the enclave.
“The IDF has begun operational preparations ahead of the implementation of the agreement,” it said in a post on X Thursday. “As part of this process, preparations and a combat protocol are underway to transition to adjusted deployment lines soon.”
The U.S. is also sending nearly 200 troops to Israel to help support the ceasefire introduced by the White House late last month. The troops are part of a team that includes partner nations, nongovernmental organizations and groups in the private sector.
U.S. Central Command will establish a “civil-military coordination center” in Israel to help ensure the flow of humanitarian aid. The American units, none of which will enter Gaza, will also help with logistics and security in the area.
Subsequent steps in the plan will prove more difficult to implement. For instance, Netanyahu has demanded that Hamas completely disarm, something the militant group has strongly opposed. Likewise, Hamas wants to see a Palestinian body govern the region; however, Trump’s plan calls for an international group that includes himself and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to oversee governance in Gaza.
2 years of death and destruction
While news of a ceasefire has been welcomed and celebrated by many Palestinians in Gaza, the road toward reconstruction will take years. More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and 169,000 have been injured, many of whom suffered irreversible bodily harm, since Israel launched its offensive in the region.
Israel’s offensive began after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people –– mostly civilians –– and taking another 250 hostage.
According to an analysis by Al Jazeera, the dead and injured amount to roughly 10% of Gaza’s population, which sits just over 2 million people. More specifically, 1 out of every 33 people in Gaza has been killed, while 1 out of every 14 has been injured. With upwards of 20,000 children dying over the past 24 months, that amounts to one child killed every hour. Meanwhile, more than 90% of residential buildings across the Strip have been destroyed, as critical infrastructure, including hospitals, sewage systems and schools have been laid to waste.
Israel has been accused by numerous international bodies, as well as Israeli-based human rights groups, of committing genocide in Gaza, a claim which Netanyahu strongly denies. During a recent United Nations General Assembly meeting, dozens of world leaders walked out of Netanyahu’s speech in protest of his administration’s military actions.
Arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) have been issued for Netanyahu, as well as other senior Israeli and Hamas officials.
“The ICC considered the law and the evidence and found reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant and Mohamed Deif bear responsibility for crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Saïd Benarbia, a program director at the International Commission of Jurists, said in November. “States must fully comply with their legal obligations under international law and give full effect to the arrest warrants.”
Benarbia added, “The victims of these atrocities and their families must have their day in court. States and the international community as a whole have failed to end their untold suffering for more than a year. They should not betray them again by failing to arrest and surrender the alleged perpetrators whenever the opportunity should arise.”
