US President Donald Trump, world leaders meet in Egypt on future of Gaza

US President Donald Trump departed Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Monday, after meeting with world leaders at a summit to discuss the future of Gaza. He told those assembled that the time to start planning “Phase 2” of a broader peace arrangement had arrived.

Mr Trump and other leaders signed a document on the Gaza ceasefire agreement, the details of which were not made public. The White House did not immediately respond to a question about what he signed.

In an address to Israel’s Parliament earlier Monday to celebrate the return of the remaining living hostages from Gaza as part of a US -backed ceasefire plan, Mr Trump said the war in Gaza “is over” and touted the “dawn of a new Middle East,” although much remains uncertain about the next phase of the peace plan.

The 20 living hostages were released in two groups, seven first and then 13, and have arrived back in Israel.

In exchange, Israeli authorities said they released nearly 2000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The vast majority of them are Gaza residents who were swept up by the Israeli military over the past two years but never charged with crimes.

Palestinians have voiced fears that once the hostages - Hamas’s only leverage - have been released, the Israeli military could return to attacking the enclave. Mr Trump has offered his personal guarantee that Israel would not do so.

Here are the key developments

- All 20 living hostages have been released and returned to Israel. They were freed in two groups.

- The bodies of 28 hostages were also due to be released Monday, but Hamas said it would release only four. Two have been released, but their names have not been. The group had warned during negotiations that it would be unable to find all the bodies by the 72-hour deadline.

- The Israel Prison Service said it has freed 1968 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Under the deal, 250 people serving life sentences and about 1700 Gaza residents held without charge since October 7, 2023, were to be released.

- Mr Trump and other world leaders signed a document connected to the ceasefire deal at a summit on Gaza’s future in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Monday. Its contents were not immediately clear.

- Mr Trump said that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi had “played a very important role” in securing a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Now, Trump said, leaders could start planning for “Phase 2.”

- Mr Trump addressed the Israeli Parliament on Monday, and for over an hour he lauded the ceasefire deal he brokered as the beginning of peace in the Middle East.

- Mr Trump said the war in Gaza “is over.” But neither he nor Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed longer-term and thornier issues of the US-backed plan to permanently end the war that have yet to be negotiated.

‘Turn a painful page in history’

Egypt’s El-Sisi said the Gaza ceasefire agreement “will turn a painful page in history,” in remarks to world leaders and attendees of Monday’s “peace summit.”

He thanked mediating partners the United States, Turkey and Qatar and said Egypt “reaffirms our eagerness to execute this plan.”

Addressing Mr Trump directly, he said Mr Trump had proved that “leadership is not (shown) by starting wars, but rather the power to end them. … Your excellency, let the Gaza war be the last war in the Middle East.”

He hailed Mr Trump’s “keenness to revive life in Gaza” and added, “Peace is not complete until hands are stretched to rebuild,” referring to the Gaza reconstruction process.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Monday at the summit in Egypt that he would nominate Mr Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

“I genuinely feel that he’s the most genuine and most wonderful candidate for the peace prize,” Sharif said. Officials and politicians from various countries have already nominated Mr Trump.

Mr Trump has pursued the prize for years. On Friday, it was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

As she set off for the return to Washington from the Middle East, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X that her conversations with several hostage families were among “the most impactful” of her life.

“Their strength, faith, and determination to get their loved ones home was deeply moving, and I will never forget it,” Ms Leavitt wrote.

“As a mother, my heart is especially happy for the moms who are hugging their sons tonight after two years of pure agony.”

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