Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said a two-state solution is the “only way” to secure lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians. He said Egypt would work with “all partners” to lay the foundation for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Joy turned to devastation for many after Israel added a twist to its release of almost 2,000 imprisoned Palestinians as part of the ceasefire deal. It’s sending 154 into exile, refusing to let them back into Gaza or the occupied West Bank.
Political leaders from around the world have convened in Egypt for a ceremony to sign a ceasefire deal in Gaza, led by United States President Donald Trump and mediating partners such as Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye.
Speaking in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, Trump envisioned a glimmering future for Gaza as a hub of development and investment, even as the Gaza Strip lies in ruins following Israel’s devastating, two-year assault.
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“A new and beautiful day is rising and now the rebuilding begins,” said the US president, who praised regional leaders who helped broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
“Rebuilding is maybe going to be the easiest part,” he added, stating that “we know how to build better than anybody in the world.”
The ceasefire deal has been greeted with a combination of relief and anxiety about the future in Gaza, where Israeli attacks killed at least 67,869 people, with thousands more likely buried beneath the rubble.
“There’s no place here for people to stay,” Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud reported from Gaza.
He added that people returning to what remains of their homes have struggled to access basic necessities, including water.
“We drove by entire neighbourhoods that have been levelled to the ground,” Mahmoud said. “There is nothing left. There is nothing recognisable about many of the neighbourhoods that we knew.”
Despite the toll of Israel’s military campaign, which left most of the Strip unlivable and has been described as a genocide by a growing number of scholars and rights groups, the US president has framed discussions of Gaza’s future around Israeli security demands.
“Gaza’s reconstruction also requires that it be demilitarised,” Trump said in his remarks.
Leaders from the region such as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi praised Trump at the summit, but warned that only the creation of a Palestinian state could offer a durable end to the conflict.
“Egypt reasserts along with its brotherly Arab and Muslim nations that peace remains our strategic choice, and that the experiences have shown over the past decades that this choice can only be established upon justice and equality in rights,” he said.
But progress towards that goal remains distant.
Israel has insisted that it will not allow the creation of a Palestinian state, and the US, which continued to assist Israel with massive arms transfers and diplomatic support during the conflict despite growing anger at the destruction of Gaza, has offered only vague comments about its vision of the Strip’s future.
The possible involvement of strongly pro-Israel figures, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, in the post-war governance of Gaza has also raised concerns.
“We’re seeing these global leaders gathering together, ensuring that they’re all aligned, that they want to end this conflict,” Zeidon Alkinani, a lecturer at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.
“But how sustainable is the long-term future after this peace treaty? Are we ending all the issues that ended up accumulating to leading to the events of October 7 and everything that happened [after]? I think that’s the question we need to look at.”
Trump’s Gaza plan calls for a group of Palestinian policy experts to rule Gaza, but the local authorities would be supervised by a so-called “Board of Peace” headed by Trump and Blair.
President Donald Trump is in the region Monday to cement his plan for peace in Gaza.
US President Donald Trump has made a last-minute trip to the Middle East in the wake of the Gaza ceasefire deal.
He landed in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh late on Monday after flying in from Israel, where he addressed the Israeli Knesset.
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The first phase of Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan has now been completed, with Hamas releasing all 20 living Israeli captives in Gaza and Israel freeing Palestinian prisoners in the occupied West Bank.
So will this deal finally bring peace to the region?
And what does Trump’s plan mean for the broader Middle East?
Presenter: Neave Barker
Guests:
Sarah Eltantawi – Professor at Fordham University in New York City; political analyst and writer
Yezid Sayigh – Senior fellow at the Malcolm H Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut
Ramallah, occupied West Bank – The morning dawned full of anticipation as thousands of Palestinian families prepared to welcome their imprisoned relatives, who were scheduled to be released as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Israel.
Some had spent decades in prison, some were serving consecutive life sentences, and most had been rounded up wholesale by Israel in Gaza during its two-year war on the besieged enclave.
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The Ramallah Cultural Centre was where the families of political prisoners being released to the West Bank gathered on Monday, and tears, embraces, and anticipation were everywhere.
But the tears flowing down one woman’s face seemed different as she leaned against her brother, weeping bitterly.
They were shocked and saddened by the news they had just gotten about their brother, prisoner Muhammad Ahmad Imran from Hebron, who was detained in December 2022 and handed 13 life sentences. And their joy at hearing he would be released had just been dashed.
Ibtisam and her brother Raed Imran had come to Ramallah two days ago, after they got a call from Muhammad from the Israeli prison where he was held, telling them that he would be among the prisoners to be released to the West Bank.
But when they arrived at the cultural centre on Monday morning, they were told that Muhammad was on the list, yes, but that he was among the more than 100 prisoners whom Israel had decided to exile from Palestine.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office, Israel will be exiling 154 out of 250 Palestinian political prisoners it is releasing.
These men will likely face severe constraints on their movements and activities in the countries they will be taken to, and travel will be difficult given that they only have Palestinian citizenship.
Tamer Qarmout, associate professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera these exile orders amount to forced displacement of these individuals.
In addition, because Israel makes it nearly impossible for some Palestinians to travel outside Palestine, these prisoners’ families may never see them again.
Raed was still in disbelief, going over the past few days and all the things that had happened that made him sure his brother was coming home.
“I got a call from an Israeli officer … He told us not to show joy or receive well-wishers,” he said, describing a common experience for Palestinian families: threats by Israeli security forces – of violence, arrests, and worse if they showed any joy that their loved one was coming home.
“The Israeli army raided our home that night, asking where Muhammad would stay after his release. They warned against any celebrations, support for the resistance, or even messages of solidarity with Gaza. We told them we only wanted my brother’s freedom, and that we were prepared to shut our doors to any well-wishers.”
Ibtisam looked exhausted and tearful.
“I was so happy when I heard Muhammad would be released. We left Hebron two days ago … I wanted to be the first to receive him. But all that exhaustion from moving around and finding a place to stay here, it was all worth it; I was so sure all the fatigue would disappear at the moment of meeting,” she said with a sad smile.
“The occupation’s threats spoiled our joy and made us turbulent,” she added. “The manipulation of names and information was intentional, and this is what burned our nerves. [But] I will remain here until the last prisoner is released. I can’t describe what is in my heart … all words fail.”
Also at the gate of the Ramallah Cultural Centre stood Bassam al-Zeir, a 60-year-old man from Dura, south of Hebron, his face tired but excited.
He was anticipating a reunion he had awaited for 23 years, with his brother Hani, a 50-year-old father of seven, and with their cousin Arafat al-Zeir.
Hani was arrested on June 28, 2002, and sentenced to 25 years in prison, of which he served 23 years. Arafat was arrested at the same time and sentenced to 35 years.
Bassam said it had been “a joyful thunderbolt” to learn that the two men were going to be released.
“My cousin Arafat’s name was on the first list then, at exactly 2am, my brother Hani’s name was released. We couldn’t believe it and started preparing to go to Ramallah right then.”
Bassam hasn’t seen his brother in more than two decades, as the family was denied any visits, likely because Bassam himself had been previously detained.
“I was arrested more than once, and they prevented me from seeing him, even during family visits, as if they wanted the separation between us to remain eternal.”
But, he added: “Freedom is coming … even if it’s delayed by 23 years.”
Despite his joy, Bassam is frustrated and saddened.
On the one hand, he said, he knew that the release of prisoners comes at an indescribable cost that the people of Gaza had to bear for two years.
And on the other hand, the restrictions the Israelis impose on prisoners’ families prevent them from expressing their joy at having their loved ones home again.
“We waited a quarter of a century [for this release] … but they even prevented joy from reaching us,” he says, his eyes welling with tears.
Then the bus arrived and prisoners began coming out, and Bassam surged forward with members of other families, eager to catch a glimpse of his brother and cousin.
But the crush of people at the doors of the bus was too much, and Bassam faltered, falling back a bit and shouting out “Hani! Hani!” in hopes that his brother would hear him.
Eventually, the brothers were reunited and tears flowed as they embraced and tried to pack a lot of feelings into those moments.
Asked about what was going through his head, Hani shook his head and said, “This feeling cannot be described in words…”
Arafat was not part of this tender moment. His health had deteriorated so much in Israeli prison that he had to be helped off the bus and whisked away immediately to be checked by doctors.
Relief at being out and seeing his brother after so long was apparent on Hani’s face, as was the weariness of his time in prison.
He and Arafat had been held in Ramon Prison until they were told shortly before their release that they were being moved to Ofer, another facility that Palestinians know is usually a last holding area for prisoners about to be released.
They were threatened, Hani said, but the joy of being moved to Ofer Prison was stronger.
“I felt my breath return, as if life had returned.
Russia has urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to exercise restraint after deadly fighting erupted along the border for two days, killing dozens and halting bilateral trade in what has amounted to the worst clashes in recent memory.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it was closely monitoring the events and that “the situation is stabilising”, following similar statements from China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
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“We welcome this process,” the ministry added.
Tensions rose on Thursday, when the Taliban blamed Pakistan for explosions in Kabul and the eastern province of Paktika.
Two days later, on Saturday night, Taliban forces attacked various Pakistani military outposts. As Pakistani forces retaliated, the two sides exchanged gun, artillery and drone fire through early Sunday morning and fought sporadically throughout the day.
The two sides have reported conflicting death tolls. Pakistan’s military said 23 of its soldiers were dead and claimed to have killed 200 Taliban and affiliated fighters, while Afghanistan said its forces killed 58 Pakistani soldiers.
By Monday, Pakistani troops were stationed on high alert along the closed border with Afghanistan, where hundreds of people and trucks loaded with goods remained stranded.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “greatly values dialogue and diplomacy”, but warned that “any further provocations would be met with an unwavering and befitting response”.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021. Since then, Islamabad has accused the Taliban of allowing the Pakistan Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate within Afghan borders – a charge Kabul denies.
Russia, meanwhile, has sought to boost its influence in Afghanistan since the withdrawal of United States troops that led to the Taliban’s rise.
In 2022 and 2024, a Taliban delegation attended Russia’s St Petersburg International Economic Forum. In 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to the Taliban as “allies in the fight against terrorism” – namely the ISIL affiliate in Khorasan Province, ISKP, which has claimed responsibility for attacks in Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and elsewhere.