Prior to his departure from the United States for Israel, a reporter asked U.S. President Donald Trump about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “hesitation” to say that the war against Gaza is over. “The war is over. It’s over. Okay? You understand that?” replied the U.S. President. He added that there were “a lot of reasons why [the ceasefire] is going to hold.”
He repeated that message during his speech on Monday, Oct. 13 to the Knesset. “You’re not at war anymore, Bibi—you can be nice,” said Trump, addressing Netanyahu.
Trump declared “the historic dawn of the new Middle East” and said it marked “not only the end of war, but the end of an age of terror and death and the beginning of the age of faith and hope and of God,” reported the Times of Israel. He told Israel’s lawmakers that Israel had nothing more to achieve on the battlefield and must work toward peace in the Middle East, and said he would deliver a similar message to regional leaders in Egypt later in the day.
“You’ve won. I mean, you’ve won,” he said. “Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East.” Times of Israel noted that despite Trump’s praise, Netanyahu has not formally called an end to the war.
Trump is now in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, where he and the leaders of Egypt, Türkiye, and Qatar signed a document on the peace agreement. “We’re going to sign a document that’s going to spell out a lot of rules and regulations and lots of other things. It’s very comprehensive,” declared Trump at the start of what he’s described as the “peace summit” in Egypt, reported Al Jazeera. He said the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas “is really working out incredibly well.”
“Everybody said it’s not possible to do and it’s going to happen. And it is happening before your very eyes,” Trump said alongside his host, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
In his speech following the document signing, Trump repeated his earlier message that the war is over, stressing that “after years of suffering and bloodshed, the war in Gaza is over.”
“Humanitarian aid is now pouring in, including hundreds of truckloads of food, medical equipment and other supplies, much of it paid by people in this room,” he said. “Civilians are returning to their homes, the hostages are reuniting [with their families].”
“A new and beautiful day is rising and now the rebuilding begins,” Trump added, expressing his “tremendous gratitude to the Arab and Muslim nations who helped make this incredible breakthrough possible.”
