As Hostages and Prisoners Return Home, Trump Declares ‘New Dawn’ in Mideast

With Hamas freeing the last 20 living Israeli hostages and Israel releasing some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, President Trump proclaimed an ‘end’ to the war, but big questions about Gaza’s future remain.

After two years of mass carnage and destruction, Israel and Hamas took major steps on Monday toward ending the war in Gaza, exchanging hostages for prisoners as President Trump arrived in the Middle East, basking in the adulation of world leaders who credited him for pushing through a plan for peace.

“This is the end of the age of terror and death,” President Trump said in an address to the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, where he received a standing ovation and repeated, rapturous applause.

Mr. Trump proclaimed “the end of the war” in Gaza. And deploying a line presidents before him have reached for, only to be later disappointed, Mr. Trump declared a new era for the region.

“This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East,” he said.

By the end of the day, Hamas had freed 20 living hostages and Israel had released some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, part of the 20-point peace plan announced by the Trump administration after weeks of cajoling and courting major players in the Middle East, and the mediation of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.

The guns and artillery in Gaza were silent on Monday and the aerial bombings that have killed so many thousands of Gazans had ceased. And for the first time since the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, Hamas no longer held any living Israeli captives.

“Our nightmare is finally over. He’s almost here,” said Ilan Gilboa-Dalal, the father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival.

“I’m going to tell him: ‘My son, the nightmare is over,” Ilan said by telephone after the news of his son’s release. “You’re finally safe, you’re with us. We’re never leaving you again.”

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, families broke into trills as buses carrying scores of released prisoners and detainees approached, with people rushing forward to greet the men as they stepped off.

“This feeling is indescribable,” said Nasser Shehadeh, who was released after serving three years of a 17-year sentence for a car ramming attack on two soldiers, who survived. He was told he would be freed three days ago, and said the news came as a surprise.

“I haven’t slept since that moment,” he said.

Yet even as Israelis and Palestinians reveled in split-screen scenes of tearful reunions with pale and frail-looking loved ones, many pitfalls and questions remained over the future of the Gaza Strip and the tenuous ties between Israel and its neighbors.

For all of the superlatives that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, heaped on Mr. Trump on Monday — “Donald Trump is the greatest friend that the State of Israel has ever had in the White House,” he said with the American president at his side — Mr. Netanyahu did not join Mr. Trump in declaring that the war in Gaza was over.

Mr. Netanyahu was also absent from a high-level regional summit in Egypt that was meant to discuss the future of Gaza. In attendance were Mr. Trump and more than 20 leaders from across Europe and the Middle East and the head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

The Egyptian government had earlier said that both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas would participate. But in a statement late on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu said he could not accept the invitation to attend because of the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, which begins on Monday evening. Mr. Netanyahu said he had thanked Mr. Trump for the invitation to the conference.

Members of Mr. Netanyahu’s government also expressed their anger that the remains of many Israeli hostages were not handed over on Monday. The agreement between Hamas and Israel calls for Hamas to turn over the bodies of at least 26 other hostages. But Hamas said it would deliver only four coffins of remains on Monday.

Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, wrote on social media that Hamas’s announcement was “a violation of its commitments.”

“Each delay or intentional avoidance will be considered a blunt violation of the agreement and will be answered accordingly,” he wrote.

In Gaza, where 24 months of war set off a humanitarian catastrophe and widespread hunger, Palestinians expressed relief that the Israeli military had halted its two-year military offensive.

But they said there was little to celebrate. The war has left Gaza in ruins: cities reduced to rubble, tens of thousands killed and the health system devastated.

“It’s important the bombing has stopped, but there’s nothing to be happy about,” said Saed Abu Aita, 44, who is displaced in central Gaza. “My two daughters were killed, my home was destroyed and my health has deteriorated.”

About 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and about 250 people taken hostage.

Israel’s devastating military response has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, including civilians and combatants, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Palestinians in Gaza said they hoped the cease-fire would bring desperately needed food. The United Nations said on Sunday that “real progress” was being made in delivering aid to Gaza.

An Israeli military official said that, starting on Sunday, about 600 humanitarian aid trucks operated by the United Nations would be allowed to enter Gaza every day. That would be about twice as many trucks entering daily as in previous weeks, the official said. Footage from Gaza on Sunday showed men storming a moving truck and stripping boxes of supplies, scenes of desperation that have been common throughout the war.

One crucial question that remains is the future of Hamas. In agreeing to release the hostages, the militant group gave up much of the leverage it has had with Israel. But for Mr. Trump’s full peace plan to work, diplomats and negotiators will probably need to resolve whether Hamas agrees to give up its weapons.

Mr. Netanyahu long insisted that he would not accept an agreement in which Hamas refused to disarm. Hamas publicly rejected his demands that it do so.

But for the families of Israeli hostages who returned home alive, Monday was a day of jubilation.

All 20 hostages released were men — women, children and elderly hostages had come home during previous cease-fire deals.

Those released on Monday included Alon Ohel, 24, a pianist from northern Israel, who was seized from a roadside bomb shelter after fleeing the Nova music festival; Avinatan Or, 32, abducted alongside his partner, Noa Argamani, who was rescued in Gaza by Israeli forces in June 2024; and Matan Angrest, 22, a soldier in the Israeli Army who was taken captive from his tank during a battle with Hamas fighters near the Gaza border.

Videos circulated on social media of mothers and fathers reunited with grown children they had not been able to embrace for two years.

“You are coming home!” Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan Zangauker, 25, said on a video call with her son in Gaza, their first conversation since he was abducted on Oct. 7, 2023.

Reporting was contributed by Adam Rasgon, David E. Sanger, Erika Solomon, Liam Stack, Johnatan Reiss, Vivian Nereim, Farnaz Fassihi, Fatima AbdulKarim, Bilal Shbair, Rania Khaled, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, Afif Amireh and Natan Odenheimer.

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