U.S. President Donald Trump addressed Israel’s Knesset on Monday, hailing what he called the “historic dawn of a new Middle East” as Israel received the final group of living hostages freed from Gaza under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. His appearance -greeted with repeated ovations- coincided with Israel’s staged release of Palestinian prisoners and set the tone for a summit in Egypt later today on the agreement’s “day after.”
By late morning, Israeli authorities confirmed that all 20 living hostages had been transferred via the International Committee of the Red Cross, concluding a staggered release that began earlier in the day. In parallel, buses began moving Palestinian prisoners from Ofer Prison and other facilities as part of exchange tracks embedded in the ceasefire.
Trump’s core message
From the Knesset rostrum, Trump framed the moment as an inflection point, declaring the “dawn of a new Middle East.” He also said “the war is over,” a formulation that went beyond how Israeli officials have characterised the truce, which still leaves key questions open on Gaza’s security, governance and enforcement.
“For generations to come,” he said, “this will be remembered as the moment when everything began to change, and change for the better.”
The eyebrow-raising lines
En route to Israel, he joked about his “eternal fate,” saying he wasn’t sure he was “heaven-bound,” echoing recent quips that linked peacemaking to “getting into heaven.” Inside the chamber, he praised envoy Steve Witkoff as “a Henry Kissinger who doesn’t leak,” and he folded in a light aside about Ivanka Trump’s conversion to Judaism while lauding Israel’s role in the truce. Supporters cast these flourishes as trademark warmth; critics saw tonal whiplash in a wartime address.
“Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares?”
Trump’s speech, already part sermon and part show, veered into the personal when he said of Netanyahu’s legal troubles: “Either we like it or not, this was one of the greatest wartime leaders ever. Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares?” The line drew laughter and gasps in equal measure.
The audience was broadly friendly, punctuating the speech with applause and ovations. Trump’s triumphal language resonated with the relief of families awaiting reunions, even as opposition figures cautioned that the path ahead remains fragile.
The deal pairs the return of hostages, living and deceased, with phased releases of Palestinian prisoners. Transfers are being staged with Red Cross facilitation. Separate tracks address humanitarian access, internal security arrangements inside Gaza and the repatriation of remains.
The open questions
Negotiations now centre on whether and how Hamas will meet disarmament demands, who governs and secures Gaza during the transition, how compliance will be verified and enforced, and the timetable and modalities for returning the remains of deceased hostages.
Trump is due in Sharm el-Sheikh later today for a leaders’ summit co-hosted with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, focused on implementation: security architecture, humanitarian corridors and reconstruction planning.
Trump’s visit aimed to lock in momentum and claim a diplomatic breakthrough. The rhetoric -soaring at times, provocative at others- underscored both the promise of a rare day of releases and the precariousness of what comes next. The hardest decisions now shift to Egypt and to whether all sides can translate declarations into a durable peace.