US President Donald Trump said in the Knesset on Monday that the ceasefire in Gaza marks the beginning of a “new dawn of a new Middle East".
His speech, interrupted by two anti-government members of parliament calling Israel's war in Gaza a genocide and urging him to recognise Palestine, came ahead of a peace summit hosted by Egypt.
Amid chants of "Trump, Trump, Trump" in the Knesset, the US President said the truce deal represents "not only the end of a war" but a path for "what will soon be a magnificent region".
The “long and painful nightmare” inflicted by the Gaza war has finally come to an end, he said. A new coalition of “proud and responsible” nations had come together to achieve peace and the “historic dawn of a new Middle East”.
“Now at last, not only for Israelis, but for Palestinians and many others, the pain is over,” said the US leader.
Mr Trump said “decades of fomenting terrorism and extremism, jihadism and anti-Semitism have not worked”. He told Israel’s parliament that these ideas “have backfired completely”.
“From Gaza to Iran, those bitter hatreds have delivered nothing but misery, suffering and failure. Exile the wicked forces of hate.” Mr Trump told Palestinians to seize the moment of “building their people rather than trying to tear Israel down".
He claimed US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June had paved the way for his Gaza peace agreement, saying the attacks had lifted “a big cloud” off the Middle East and Israel.
His speech, the first by a US president in the Knesset since 2008 when George W Bush addressed the chamber, was interrupted by two Knesset members, Ayman Odeh and Ofer Cassif, who were removed for protesting by calling Israel's war in Gaza "genocide" and urging Mr Trump to recognise Palestinian statehood. Both are representatives of the left-wing Hadash alliance.
Mr Trump was speaking after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told the Knesset in a 28-minute speech that Israel was pursuing “peace through strength”. He added that Israel had paid a high price for conflict in the region but had shown its enemies that the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 was a “catastrophic” mistake.
Sharm El Sheikh summit
As Mr Trump was preparing to speak, the office of the Israeli PM announced Mr Netanyahu would not be able to attend a peace summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, "due to the proximity of the event to the start of the holiday", which starts at sunset. The news came after the Egyptian presidency's surprise announcement that Mr Netanyahu would take part in the summit.
The Israeli Prime Minister has been heavily criticised for prolonging the war in Gaza and the conduct of his army that has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians in two years of relentless bombing. He was indicted last year by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
The attendance of Mr Netanyahu would have meant him being in the presence of regional leaders from countries that have no diplomatic relations with Israel, and have repeatedly stated these will not be addressed until a Palestinian state is established.
Before his speech, Mr Trump met Israeli officials as Hamas released the 20 remaining hostages it had been holding in Gaza. They were freed from northern and southern parts of the enclave.
In the occupied West Bank, hundreds of Palestinians, including women and children, greeted freed Palestinian detainees from Israeli prisons as part of the exchange.
“The war is over, OK? You understand that?” Mr Trump said when asked before his trip whether he believed the conflict between Israel and Hamas was truly finished. He added he had received “guarantees” from Israel and Hamas, as well as other major regional players, about the initial phase of the deal and its future stages.
“We have a lot of verbal guarantees and I don’t think they’re going to want to disappoint me,” he added.
The release of Israeli hostages to the Red Cross proceeded smoothly after Hamas confirmed its commitment to Mr Trump’s 20-point peace plan. The agreement began with the ceasefire that ended two years of war.
Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released - in pictures
