US President Donald Trump called for a new era of harmony in the Middle East on Monday during a global summit on Gaza’s future held in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, urging countries to sign up for the Abraham Accords and trying to advance broader peace in the region after visiting Israel to celebrate a US-brokered ceasefire with Hamas.
“We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put the old feuds and bitter hatreds behind us,” Trump said, and he urged leaders “to declare that our future will not be ruled by the fights of generations past.”
Trump’s whirlwind trip to the Middle East, which included the summit in Egypt and a speech at the Knesset in Jerusalem earlier in the day, came at a fragile moment of hope for ending two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
“Everybody said it’s not possible to do. And it’s going to happen. And it is happening before your very eyes,” Trump said alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
Nearly three dozen countries, including some from Europe and the Middle East, were represented at the summit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited at the last moment but declined, with his office saying it was too close to the start of Monday night’s Simchat Torah festival.
Trump, el-Sissi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani signed a document that Trump said would lay the groundwork for Gaza’s future. However, a copy was not made public.
US President Donald Trump poses with a signed agreement at a world leaders’ summit on ending the Gaza war, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Suzanne Plunkett, Pool Photo via AP)
The document was “going to spell out rules and regulations and lots of other things,” Trump said as he signed it, repeating twice that “it’s going to hold up.”
Trump’s visit to the region came as Hamas released the 20 remaining living hostages abducted during the terror group’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza, and Israel released some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, in accordance with the first phase of Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan.
Sissi’s office said the Sharm el-Sheikh summit aimed to “end the war” in Gaza and “usher in a new page of peace and regional stability” in line with Trump’s vision. Trump has said repeatedly that the war is over, and, in the Knesset, praised Netanyahu for ending it, but the Israeli government has not formally voted to do so.
US President Donald Trump (C) and other world leaders pose for a group photograph at the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (Evan Vucci / POOL / AFP)
Trump told reporters that Hamas was looking for the bodies of the remaining deceased hostages that it has yet to return. Hamas only returned four of the 28 bodies of killed hostages on Monday — far fewer than anticipated.
“It’s a pretty gruesome task… They know the areas [where they’re located] and… they’re doing it in conjunction with Israel, and they’ll going to be finding quite a few of them,” Trump said.
Asked when the talks on phase two of the Gaza deal will begin, Trump said those talks have already started.
“The phases are all a little bit mixed in with each other. You start cleaning up [Gaza],” he said.
Speaking later at the summit, Trump said the Gaza ceasefire was the start of a “beautiful Middle East” and urged world leaders to join the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab nations in 2020, during Trump’s first term.
“This is the day that people across the region and around the world have been working, striving, hoping and praying for,” Trump said. “Nobody thought this could happen with the historic agreement we have just signed.”
“Those prayers of millions have finally been answered. The hostages have been returned, and further work goes on… to save bodies,” he said. (Hamas is still holding the remains of 24 fallen hostages.) “Together, we’ve achieved what everybody said was impossible. At long last, we have peace in the Middle East.”
“After years of suffering and bloodshed, the war in Gaza is over. Humanitarian aid is now pouring in, including hundreds of truckloads of food and medical equipment and other supplies,” he said. “Now the rebuilding begins.”
Trump thanked the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey.
Egypt and Qatar have been key mediators throughout the war. Turkey, which has hosted Hamas leaders, has recently stepped in to pressure the terror group.
“He’s always there when I need him,” Trump said of Erdogan, a fierce critic of Israel and supporter of Hamas. He also thanked the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Pakistan.
Trump also noted the presence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who was reportedly supposed to make a historic visit to Israel on Tuesday but later denied the reports. Israel has rejected a PA role in post-war Gaza, the US barred Abbas last month from entering the US for the UN General Assembly, and he was a belated invitee to the summit.
“From this moment forward, we can build a region that’s strong, stable, prosperous and united in rejecting the path of terror once and for all,” said Trump.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif calls for Donald Trump to receive the Nobel Peace Prize:
“Mr. President, I would like to salute you for your exemplary leadership. Visionary leadership.”
“I think you are the man that this world needed most at this point in time. The… pic.twitter.com/QXVOxszZx7
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 13, 2025
He said the “final sprint” to the deal that ended the Gaza war began on the sidelines of the General Assembly when he met with the leaders of eight Arab and Muslim countries, some of whom “I don’t like in particular.”
“We listened and we exchanged ideas, and we kept pushing forward until the job was done,” Trump said. “The first steps to peace are always the hardest, and today, we’ve taken them together.
“I’ve just come from Israel, it was an amazing day to watch the hostages come in,” he continued. “The Israeli people are overjoyed that the war has ended. Many of you have had dancing in the streets.”
“I hope everybody is going to join the Abraham Accords… Now, a lot of people, even today, are talking about all joining up. So many people have talked to me about that, and it’s going to be a great tribute to the United States,” Trump said.
The countries that have already joined are “wealthy,” he said, apparently referring to the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, which have varying levels of wealth.
(L-R) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan pose for a photo on the Blue Room Balcony after signing the Abraham Accords during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, September 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
“I hope everybody is now joining up. Now we have no excuses. We don’t have a Gaza and we don’t have an Iran as an excuse,” Trump said, apparently alluding to June’s 12-day Israel-Iran war, during which the US struck Iran’s nuclear sites and, per Trump, obliterated them.
“All the momentum now is toward a great, glorious and lasting peace,” Trump continued. “Our commitment to fulfilling the 20-point plan we developed together will be the crucial foundation for achieving that bright future.
During the summit, the US president met for the first time in eight years with Abbas, whose unpopular Palestinian Authority is supposed to take the reins of Gaza from a transitional international administration after undergoing a program of reforms, under Trump’s proposal.
US President Donald Trump and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas pose for a photo in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. (Suzanne Plunkett, Pool Photo via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron escorted Abbas to the podium to meet Trump, who spoke with the PA president for a few seconds before holding his hand and giving a thumbs-up to the cameras.
Israel has accused the PA of encouraging terrorism in its school system and through payments to terrorists, and rejected any role for the PA in Gaza’s transitional administration, whose Palestinian security force is slated to be trained by Jordan and Egypt.
Other leaders who came to Sharm el-Sheikh included UN chief António Guterres and the heads of state of Azerbaijan, Iraq, Britain, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Hungary.
World leaders lined up to have their photos taken with Trump ahead of the meeting. Trump smiled and gave a thumbs-up to photographers.
US President Donald Trump (C) speaks during the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (SAUL LOEB / AFP)
Netanyahu had accepted a last-minute invitation but reneged an hour later, citing the summit’s proximity to Simchat Torah. However, diplomatic sources said Netanyahu canceled the trip due to Iraqi and Turkish opposition, while a Hebrew media report said he canceled due to fear of blowback from his right-wing base.
Meanwhile, reports emerged that Subianto, the Indonesian president, was slated to visit Israel, even though his country, the world’s largest Muslim nation, has no formal ties with Israel. Indonesia’s foreign ministry later denied the reports.
US President Donald Trump, right, greets Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto pose during a summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (Evan Vucci / POOL / AFP)
A source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that Subianto, who indicated at the UN last month a desire for warmer ties with Israel, told interlocutors he would be willing to visit Israel, but then backed down due to fear of domestic backlash, and tried to save face by denying that such a trip was ever in the works.
