Philissa Cramer
President Donald Trump says he is planning to head to Israel to mark the ceasefire deal he brokered in the Gaza war.
The Israeli government officially approved the agreement late Thursday, triggering a 72-hour clock for the return of the 48 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Of them, 20 are presumed to remain alive and will be released first.
The Israeli military said the ceasefire had gone into effect by midday Friday, as required. In Gaza, civilians displaced by two years of war were beginning to return to their homes.
Trump has been invited to address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, which would mark the first appearance there by a U.S. president in nearly two decades. He is reportedly set to arrive for a short visit on Monday that will not include a stop at Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square over security concerns.
Details of how the Gaza deal came to pass have begun to emerge. Trump was reportedly closely involved in negotiations, making multiple calls himself to parties involved in them, and gave his personal assurances that Israel would not be allowed to restart fighting after the first phase of the deal, as it did during the last ceasefire in March.
To support that assurance, about 200 U.S. soldiers will be dispatched to Israel to participate in an international monitoring team. The team will also include soldiers from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates — all Muslim nations that played a role in the Gaza talks. Talks are continuing in Egypt around yet-undecided elements of the deal, which include postwar governance for Gaza and the role Hamas can play.
In a videotaped address on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested a return to war could be in the cards if Hamas does not agree in subsequent negotiations to disarm and demilitarize entirely. “If this is achieved the easy way, great,” he said. “And if not, it will be achieved the hard way.”
But he said he had become convinced that agreeing to pull back in Gaza was the only way to secure the release of the hostages.
The deal marks a dramatic return to center stage for Trump’s Jewish son-in-law Jared Kushner, who along with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff joined the Israel government meeting late Thursday where the deal was approved.
There, they praised Netanyahu for his role in the negotiations. Witkoff also responded to criticism of the deal from the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, according to local media reports.
Ben-Gvir, who voted against the deal, pressed the men over how they could support an agreement with Hamas, which he said continues to want to kill Israelis.
“I understand your perspective, but let me share a story,” Witkoff responded, according to Arutz Sheva, an Israeli news outlet. “My son died of an overdose. I wanted to kill the person responsible, but when I got to court, I saw his parents — ashamed and pleading for forgiveness. And I forgave them.”
Ben-Gvir answered, “Mr. Witkoff, that’s precisely the difference: the people who murdered us on October 7 are not asking for forgiveness. Their families are proud. They glorify murder. They want to kill Jews.”
Hamas has not apologized for its Oct. 7 attack, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, and took 250 hostages. The 72-hour clock means the remaining hostages must be released under the terms of the deal by midday Monday in Israel, on the eve of the Simchat Torah holiday that is the second anniversary on the Jewish calendar of when they were abducted.
