Everyone is tired of fighting. The small fires will be easy to extinguish.
Gaza ceasefire entered force Friday; Trump plans regional summit in Cairo with Arab and European leaders to supervise reconstruction and monitor compliance. Hamas has 72 hours to release 48 hostages; Israeli troops completed first withdrawal; thousands of Palestinians displaced northward amid warnings of dangerous areas.
- Gaza ceasefire entered force Friday at noon; Israeli troops completed first withdrawal to the yellow line
- Hamas has 72 hours to release 48 hostages; Israel estimates only ~20 remain alive
- Over 67,000 Palestinians killed in two-year war; 99 bodies recovered after Israeli withdrawal
- Trump plans to address Israeli Knesset this weekend, then lead regional summit in Cairo Monday with Arab and European leaders
Trump expressed confidence the Gaza ceasefire will endure, planning diplomatic visits to Israel and Egypt to oversee reconstruction and coordinate international assistance for the devastated territory.
From the Oval Office on Friday morning, the American president told reporters he believed the ceasefire in Gaza would hold. Everyone is tired of fighting, he said simply. Within hours, Israeli troops had pulled back to what officials called the yellow line—a reference to the color on the map the White House had distributed when announcing the deal—and the first phase of a two-year conflict appeared to be entering a new chapter.
The ceasefire took effect at noon that same day. What followed was a visible shift in the territory: thousands of Palestinians began moving northward along the coastal road toward Gaza City, a displacement that unfolded in long, continuous lines captured in footage released to the media. The Israeli military warned that several areas remained extremely dangerous for civilians, even as people moved through them.
The president's confidence rested partly on momentum. He announced plans to travel to Israel this weekend to address the Knesset, then continue to Egypt on Monday for what multiple sources described as a regional summit. There, he said, he would meet with numerous Arab leaders and representatives from several European countries to discuss Gaza's future and coordinate the international response to a territory that had been devastated by two years of war. The initiative, according to reporting, aims to oversee reconstruction, manage aid flows, and establish monitoring mechanisms to ensure both sides honor the ceasefire terms. It is a deliberate positioning of the United States as the central mediator in the region's most urgent crisis.
But the agreement's first test was already underway. The president acknowledged there were small critical points remaining—minor fires that would be easy to extinguish, he suggested, speaking in the language of crisis management. Hamas, under the terms reached Wednesday, had 72 hours from the ceasefire's start to release 48 hostages currently held in the enclave. Israeli intelligence estimated that only about 20 of them remained alive. The hostage release was set to begin Monday, the same day the president would be in Cairo.
The scale of what preceded this moment was staggering. The conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led attacks killed roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel and resulted in 251 hostages being taken. Israel's response was a large-scale military operation that, according to figures from Hamas-controlled local authorities, had killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, destroyed nearly all of the territory's infrastructure, and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. On the morning after the ceasefire took effect, Palestinian civil defense teams recovered 99 bodies from various locations across the strip following the Israeli withdrawal.
The president did not detail his travel schedule in full, but he was clear about the stakes. The ceasefire, he suggested, could lead to broader peace across the Middle East. The small remaining problems would be resolved quickly. What he did not say, but what hung over the moment, was that this agreement existed in the narrowest of margins—between a region exhausted by conflict and the fragile mechanisms meant to hold it in place.
Citas Notables
I think so. Everyone is tired of fighting.— President Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office
We have some small critical points now, but they are very small. These will be very easy to extinguish. These fires will be controlled very quickly.— President Trump, on remaining obstacles to the ceasefire
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does Trump think this ceasefire will actually stick when so many before it haven't?
He's betting on exhaustion. Both sides have been fighting for two years. The infrastructure is gone, the hostages are still there, and the cost has become unbearable. He's not naive about it—he mentioned small critical points still exist. But he seems to think momentum and international oversight can carry it through.
What's the real purpose of this Cairo summit?
It's about making the ceasefire permanent by building the architecture around it. Reconstruction, aid coordination, monitoring mechanisms—these aren't just humanitarian gestures. They're ways to keep all the parties accountable and give them reasons to stick with the deal beyond just being tired.
The hostage situation seems precarious. Only 20 of 48 estimated alive?
Yes. That's the most fragile part. Hamas has 72 hours to release them starting Monday. If that goes wrong, the whole thing could unravel immediately. It's the first real test of whether the agreement means anything.
How does the displacement of Palestinians fit into this?
It's both a consequence and a complication. Thousands are moving north because Israeli troops pulled back. But the military is warning those areas are still dangerous. So people are returning to a territory that's still unstable, still partly controlled by Israeli forces, still recovering from massive destruction.
What happens if the ceasefire fails?
Then you're back to where you started, except with even more death, more displacement, more international pressure on the U.S. to do something different. Trump's credibility as a mediator depends on this holding through at least the first few weeks.