President Donald Trump convened a Cabinet meeting on Thursday to discuss the newly signed ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, a deal that will result in the release of all remaining hostages by early next week.
Opening the meeting, Trump celebrated the development as a major diplomatic triumph. “As you know, last night we reached a momentous breakthrough in the Middle East … we ended the war in Gaza, and on a much bigger basis, created peace.”
The president confirmed that every hostage still held in Gaza will soon return home. “We secured the release of all of the remaining hostages, and they should be released on Monday or Tuesday,” he said. “Getting them is a complicated process – I’d rather not tell you what they have to do to get them.”
Trump announced plans to travel to the region over the weekend, with a signing ceremony expected to take place in Egypt. He is also slated to visit Israel on Sunday as part of the peace mission.
Reflecting on the events that triggered the war, Trump said he “remembers October 7th,” describing it as “terrible.” He added that Hamas had suffered devastating losses in what he described as “big retribution,” estimating that the terror group had “probably lost about 70,000 people.”
“At some point, that whole thing has to stop,” Trump continued. “Gaza is going to be slowly redone … by certain countries. What they make will do wonders for Gaza.”
In a rare comment of approval for the press, Trump commended news outlets for their reporting on the breakthrough, saying the media had covered the development “very fairly.”
The president also credited June’s military strikes on Iran as a contributing factor to the success of the ceasefire, noting that Tehran had been on the verge of completing a nuclear weapon. He warned that, had Iran succeeded, it would have cast a “dark cloud” over the peace process.
{Matzav.com}
