Washington, MINA – US President Donald Trump declared Sunday that the war in Gaza had come to an end as he departed for the Middle East to attend an international peace summit focused on the newly agreed ceasefire.
“The war is over, okay? You understand that?” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after taking off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland for his first stop in Tel Aviv. He made the comment when asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s silence on the end of the conflict.
Trump said he was confident the ceasefire agreement, based on his 20-point peace plan announced last Wednesday, would hold.
“There are a lot of reasons why it’s going to hold. But I think people are tired of it. It’s been centuries, not just recent. It’s been centuries,” he said.
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His remarks came minutes before departing for Israel and Egypt to co-chair the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit on the Gaza ceasefire.
“Everybody’s very excited about this moment in time. This is the first time everybody is amazed, and they’re thrilled, and it’s an honor to be involved, and we’re going to have an amazing time,” he told reporters.
Trump is traveling with several top officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.
The president is scheduled to land in Tel Aviv at 9:20 a.m. local time (0620 GMT) on Monday, where he will meet with hostage families and address the Knesset (Israeli parliament). He will then travel to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, at 1:45 p.m. local time (1045 GMT) to co-chair the peace summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
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Over 20 world leaders are expected to attend, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
According to Egypt, the summit aims “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East, and usher in a new phase of regional security and stability.”
Trump’s 20-point peace plan includes three stages. The first phase, which began Friday, provides for a Gaza ceasefire, the release of all Israeli captives in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.
The second phase outlines the creation of a new governing body in Gaza excluding Hamas, the deployment of a multinational force, and the disarmament of Hamas.
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Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children, rendering much of Gaza uninhabitable.[]
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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