Whereas President Donald Trump has declared the Israel-Hamas battle over, some Center East consultants say the method to finish the two-year battle is simply starting.
Monday’s historic release of the remaining dwelling Israeli hostages in Gaza and the simultaneous launch of greater than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners that had been held by Israel is simply a part of step one of Trump’s 20-point plan to convey peace to the area.
“After so a few years of unceasing battle and countless hazard, at present the skies are calm, the weapons are silent, the sirens are nonetheless, and the solar rises on a Holy Land that’s lastly at peace, a land and a area that can reside, God keen, in peace for all eternity,” Trump stated in a speech on Monday to the Israeli parliament.
President Donald Trump talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Oct. 13, 2025, in Jerusalem.
Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Trump added, “This isn’t solely the top of a battle, that is the top of an age of terror and loss of life and the start of the age of religion and hope and of God. It is the beginning of a grand harmony of lasting concord for Israel and all of the nations of what’s going to quickly be an impressive area.”
Whereas Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been hesitant to publicly say the battle with Hamas was over, he stated throughout a speech that preceded Trump’s deal with that he’s “dedicated to this peace.”
Household and mates of hostage Elkana Bohbot react as they’re gathering to observe his launch from Hamas captivity, October 13, 2025 in Mevaseret Zion, Israel.
Amir Levy/Getty Photographs
“Mr. President, at present we welcome you right here to thanks to your pivotal management in placing ahead a proposal that acquired the backing of just about all the world, a proposal that brings all our hostages house, a proposal that ends the battle by attaining all our targets, a proposal that opens the door to a historic growth of peace in our area and past our area,” Netanyahu stated.
Freed Palestinian prisoners look out of a bus after they had been launched by Israel as a part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip, October 13, 2025.
Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
“Mr. President, you might be dedicated to this peace. I’m dedicated to this peace and, collectively, Mr. President, we’ll obtain this peace,” the prime minister stated.
President Donald Trump listens to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he addresses the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025.
Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Following his go to to Israel, Trump flew to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for a peace summit he co-chaired with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the place the official signing ceremony of his ceasefire proposal occurred Monday afternoon.
Opening the summit, el-Sisi praised Trump for brokering a peace deal that’s helpful to all the area. He invited Trump to “be part of the peace lovers’ leaders, leaders who advocate for peace on the planet.”
“At this historic milestone, the place we’re all collectively, [and] witnessed the reaching of this Sham el-Sheikh settlement on ending battle in Gaza,” el-Sisi stated.
He went on to name the settlement “a glimpse of hope that such [a] deal ends an agonizing chapter within the historical past of mankind, and opens the door, ushering in a brand new period of peace and stability within the Center East.”
Specialists stated that regardless of the historic preliminary phases of the peace proposal being executed, the assembly in Egypt, which included greater than 20 world leaders, is the place troublesome subsequent steps start.
Michael Ratney, the previous U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia beneath the Biden administration, stated that whereas it is arduous to not get caught up within the emotion of the celebrations over the hostage and prisoner releases, there’s a lengthy solution to go earlier than peace is achieved.
“I might wish to say it was peace. It isn’t peace but,” Ratney instructed ABC Information on Monday. “There’s a variety of work, and that features most of the measures which can be on that 20-point plan that the White Home launched.”
Sources accustomed to the negotiations instructed ABC Information that agreements nonetheless have to be reached on among the most troublesome factors of the plan. These embody the entire withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, Hamas ceding management of Gaza, disarming and decommissioning the militant group, and turning Gaza’s governance over to a world trusteeship overseen by the U.S. and Arab allies.
“I don’t know if it’s an impediment, however actually a problem. And one in every of them proper now could be going to be the method beneath which Hamas is demilitarized and demobilized as a terrorist group or as a militant group,” Javid Ali, a former senior director for counterterrorism on the Nationwide Safety Council, instructed ABC Information on Monday.
Whereas flying to the Center East in a single day, Trump implied to reporters on Air Power One which Hamas has been given the inexperienced mild to behave as a Palestinian police drive in Gaza “for a time period.”
“They’re standing as a result of they do need to cease the issues, and so they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a time period,” Trump stated.
Palestinian militants stand guard on the day that hostages held in Gaza because the lethal October 7, 2023 assault, are handed over to the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, October 13, 2025.
Ramadan Abed/Reuters
He added, “You must perceive they’ve misplaced most likely 60,000 individuals. That is a variety of retribution. They’ve misplaced 60,000 individuals, and those which can be dwelling proper now had been, in lots of circumstances, very younger when this all began, and we’re having a watch that there is not going to be huge crime, or among the issues that you’ve got when you may have areas like this which have been actually demolished.”
Ali stated it’ll take quite a lot of time earlier than Hamas lays down its weapons as required in Trump’s proposal.
“It is nonetheless not clear who’s going to really oversee that demobilization, demilitarization, whether or not it’s the Israel Protection Forces or this worldwide safety physique that’s nonetheless not comprised and on the bottom,” Ali stated.
Ali stated there have been different examples all through world historical past of insurgent teams cooperating with peace accords after lengthy intervals of preventing. He famous that the Irish Republican Military did so within the late Nineties after an extended wrestle with the British authorities, and that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a guerrilla group also referred to as FARC, agreed to disarm in 2016 after signing a ceasefire accord with the Colombian authorities.
“You actually must account for the fighters, the individuals who would take up arms for these organizations, make sure that they don’t have the weapons and the capabilities to conduct and additional acts of terrorism or militant operations,” Ali stated.
An instance of how fragile the ceasefire proposal is arose on Monday when the Hostage Households Discussion board accused Hamas of violating the deal when it launched the stays of solely 4 of the 28 hostages who perished in captivity.
“We anticipate Israel’s authorities and the mediators to take speedy motion to rectify this grave injustice,” the Hostage Households Discussion board stated in a press release.
On Tuesday morning, each Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces accused one another of violating the settlement after IDF troops opened fireplace on Palestinians, killing 5.
The IDF alleged the Palestinians violated the ceasefire by crossing the yellow line in Gaza and approaching IDF troopers. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem launched a press release denying the allegations and accusing the IDF of violating the settlement by attacking the Palestinians with “shelling and gunfire.”
Andrew Miller, senior fellow for the Middle for American Progress, instructed ABC Information that there is no such thing as a urge for food among the many worldwide group for Israel to renew the battle, particularly now that the entire hostages have been launched.
“We have already seen a swell of worldwide opposition to Israel’s operation,” Miller stated.
Mick Mulroy, ABC Information’ nationwide safety and protection analyst and a former deputy assistant secretary of protection for the Center East, stated the success of the ceasefire plan is dependent upon each side following via on their guarantees.
“The one approach this plan goes to work is that if each side adhere to what they agreed to do,” Mulroy stated. “Any of them crumble, and it might problem the remainder of the plan.”
Trump, nevertheless, expressed optimism in his peace summit speech, telling the world leaders gathered in Egypt, “This took 3,000 years to get up to now. Are you able to consider it? And it’ll maintain up too. It should maintain up.”
