Trump hails 'end of terror era' in Israel after hostage release

Donald Trump landed in Israel on Monday to find the country transformed by a ceasefire he had helped broker. The last living hostages held by Hamas had been released. Benjamin Netanyahu met him at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, and within hours Trump stood before the Israeli parliament to declare what he called a watershed moment—not merely the end of fighting, but the close of what he termed an era of terror and death, and the opening of a new chapter of faith and hope across the Middle East.

The American president's language was sweeping. He framed the hostage deal, signed just four days earlier, as something larger than a military agreement or diplomatic arrangement. It was, in his telling, a civilizational turning point. He credited his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others in his administration, with making it possible. The speech was interrupted briefly when some parliamentarians protested, but the disruption was quickly suppressed.

Trump's remarks mixed celebration with a particular kind of reassurance. He spoke of American military superiority—the largest and most powerful defense apparatus in the world, equipped with weapons no one had ever imagined. He said he hoped never to use them. But he also made clear that if conflict came, the United States would prevail in ways no nation had achieved before. He praised Netanyahu's use of the weapons America had supplied to Israel, and he invoked a phrase Netanyahu himself had used: peace through strength, without the constraints of political correctness.

The practical work ahead loomed large in Trump's remarks. Gaza would need vast resources to rebuild. He thanked Arab and Muslim nations for committing to that reconstruction effort, noting that many of them would sit on a peace committee that would convene in Egypt. Netanyahu, speaking before Trump, had framed the moment differently—through the lens of sacrifice. He thanked Trump for what he called a miracle, something no one had believed possible. He spoke of Israeli soldiers who had fallen, and of the nation's eternal debt to those who had died. The war had begun in October 2023 when Hamas launched attacks that took hostages. Now, after more than a year of fighting, those hostages were coming home.

Trump's visit was brief but dense with symbolism. He spoke for a moment with journalists as he walked toward parliament, his words simple: this was a great day, a new beginning, and the war was over. He would spend the coming hours meeting with families of those who had been held captive.

But the real machinery of peace-making was already in motion elsewhere. Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would jointly preside over a peace summit in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Leaders from more than twenty countries had confirmed their attendance. The list read like a map of global power: UN Secretary-General António Guterres, the presidents of Spain and France, the prime ministers of Britain, Italy, and Germany, the Turkish president, the Jordanian king. A document formally ending the war in Gaza would be signed at the gathering.

What remained unclear was whether the architecture of this moment—the summit, the document, the assembled world leaders—could hold. The ceasefire was real. The hostages were free. But the underlying conflicts that had produced the war, the occupation, the blockade, and the hostage-taking remained. Trump had declared an era ended. Whether the next era would be what he promised, or something more fragile and contested, would depend on forces far beyond any single speech or summit.