Whereas President Donald Trump has declared the Israel-Hamas conflict over, some Center East specialists say the method to finish the two-year battle is simply starting.
Monday’s historic launch of the remaining dwelling Israeli hostages in Gaza and the simultaneous launch of greater than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners that had been held by Israel is simply a part of step one of Trump’s 20-point plan to carry peace to the area.
“After so a few years of unceasing conflict and countless hazard, immediately the skies are calm, the weapons are silent, the sirens are nonetheless, and the solar rises on a Holy Land that’s lastly at peace, a land and a area that may reside, God prepared, in peace for all eternity,” Trump stated in a speech on Monday to the Israeli parliament.
President Donald Trump talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, Oct. 13, 2025, in Jerusalem.
Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP through Getty Photos
Trump added, “This isn’t solely the top of a conflict, that is the top of an age of terror and loss of life and the start of the age of religion and hope and of God. It is the beginning of a grand harmony of lasting concord for Israel and all of the nations of what is going to quickly be an impressive area.”
Whereas Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been hesitant to publicly say the conflict with Hamas was over, he stated throughout a speech that preceded Trump’s tackle that he’s “dedicated to this peace.”
Household and associates of hostage Elkana Bohbot react as they’re gathering to look at his launch from Hamas captivity, October 13, 2025 in Mevaseret Zion, Israel.
Amir Levy/Getty Photos
“Mr. President, immediately we welcome you right here to thanks on your pivotal management in placing ahead a proposal that bought the backing of just about the complete world, a proposal that brings all our hostages dwelling, a proposal that ends the conflict by attaining all our aims, a proposal that opens the door to a historic growth of peace in our area and past our area,” Netanyahu stated.
Freed Palestinian prisoners look out of a bus after they have been launched by Israel as a part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis within the southern Gaza Strip, October 13, 2025.
Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
“Mr. President, you’re dedicated to this peace. I’m dedicated to this peace and, collectively, Mr. President, we are going to obtain this peace,” the prime minister stated.
President Donald Trump listens to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he addresses the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in Jerusalem, October 13, 2025.
Saul Loeb/Pool/AFP through Getty Photos
Following his go to to Israel, Trump flew to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, for a peace summit he co-chaired with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and the place the official signing ceremony of his ceasefire proposal occurred Monday afternoon.
Opening the summit, el-Sisi praised Trump for brokering a peace deal that’s useful to the complete area. He invited Trump to “be part of the peace lovers’ leaders, leaders who advocate for peace on this planet.”
“At this historic milestone, the place we’re all collectively, [and] witnessed the reaching of this Sham el-Sheikh settlement on ending conflict in Gaza,” el-Sisi stated.
He went on to name the settlement “a glimpse of hope that such [a] deal ends an agonizing chapter within the historical past of mankind, and opens the door, ushering in a brand new period of peace and stability within the Center East.”
Specialists stated that regardless of the historic preliminary phases of the peace proposal being executed, the assembly in Egypt, which included greater than 20 world leaders, is the place troublesome subsequent steps start.
Michael Ratney, the previous U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia underneath the Biden administration, stated that whereas it is laborious to not get caught up within the emotion of the celebrations over the hostage and prisoner releases, there’s a lengthy approach to go earlier than peace is achieved.
“I might wish to say it was peace. It isn’t peace but,” Ratney instructed ABC Information on Monday. “There’s a whole lot of work, and that features lots of the measures which might be on that 20-point plan that the White Home launched.”
Sources aware of the negotiations instructed ABC Information that agreements nonetheless have to be reached on a few of the most troublesome factors of the plan. These embody the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, Hamas ceding management of Gaza, disarming and decommissioning the militant group, and turning Gaza’s governance over to a global trusteeship overseen by the U.S. and Arab allies.
“I don’t know if it’s an impediment, however actually a problem. And one in all them proper now could be going to be the method underneath which Hamas is demilitarized and demobilized as a terrorist group or as a militant group,” Javid Ali, a former senior director for counterterrorism on the Nationwide Safety Council, instructed ABC Information on Monday.
Whereas flying to the Center East in a single day, Trump implied to reporters on Air Drive One which Hamas has been given the inexperienced mild to behave as a Palestinian police drive in Gaza “for a time frame.”
“They’re standing as a result of they do wish to cease the issues, they usually’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a time frame,” Trump stated.
Palestinian militants stand guard on the day that hostages held in Gaza for the reason that lethal October 7, 2023 assault, are handed over to the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, October 13, 2025.
Ramadan Abed/Reuters
He added, “You must perceive they’ve misplaced in all probability 60,000 individuals. That is a whole lot of retribution. They’ve misplaced 60,000 individuals, and those which might be dwelling proper now have been, in lots of instances, very younger when this all began, and we’re having a watch that there is not going to be massive crime, or a few of the issues that you’ve got when you could have areas like this which were actually demolished.”
Ali stated it is going to take a substantial amount of time earlier than Hamas lays down its weapons as required in Trump’s proposal.
“It is nonetheless not clear who’s going to truly oversee that demobilization, demilitarization, whether or not it’s the Israel Protection Forces or this worldwide safety physique that’s nonetheless not comprised and on the bottom,” Ali stated.
Ali stated there have been different examples all through world historical past of insurgent teams cooperating with peace accords after lengthy intervals of combating. He famous that the Irish Republican Military did so within the late Nineties after a protracted battle with the British authorities, and that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a guerrilla group also called FARC, agreed to disarm in 2016 after signing a ceasefire accord with the Colombian authorities.
“You actually should account for the fighters, the individuals who would take up arms for these organizations, make sure that they don’t have the weapons and the capabilities to conduct and additional acts of terrorism or militant operations,” Ali stated.
An instance of how fragile the ceasefire proposal is arose on Monday when the Hostage Households Discussion board accused Hamas of violating the deal when it launched the stays of solely 4 of the 28 hostages who perished in captivity.
“We count on Israel’s authorities and the mediators to take quick motion to rectify this grave injustice,” the Hostage Households Discussion board stated in an announcement.
On Tuesday morning, each Hamas and the Israel Protection Forces accused one another of violating the settlement after IDF troops opened fireplace on Palestinians, killing 5.
The IDF alleged the Palestinians violated the ceasefire by crossing the yellow line in Gaza and approaching IDF troopers. Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem launched an announcement denying the allegations and accusing the IDF of violating the settlement by attacking the Palestinians with “shelling and gunfire.”
Andrew Miller, senior fellow for the Heart for American Progress, instructed ABC Information that there isn’t a urge for food among the many worldwide group for Israel to renew the conflict, particularly now that all the hostages have been launched.
“We have already seen a swell of worldwide opposition to Israel’s operation,” Miller stated.
Mick Mulroy, ABC Information’ nationwide safety and protection analyst and a former deputy assistant secretary of protection for the Center East, stated the success of the ceasefire plan will depend on either side following via on their guarantees.
“The one approach this plan goes to work is that if either side adhere to what they agreed to do,” Mulroy stated. “Any of them collapse, and it may problem the remainder of the plan.”
Trump, nevertheless, expressed optimism in his peace summit speech, telling the world leaders gathered in Egypt, “This took 3,000 years to get so far. Are you able to imagine it? And it is going to maintain up too. It is going to maintain up.”
