The war is over, Trump says, on historic day for the Middle East

US President Donald Trump declared on Monday that the war in the Middle East was over, as he began a major trip to the region to finalize a peace deal for Gaza.

Trump arrived in Tel Aviv on Monday to mark the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas after more than two years of captivity.

As he arrived at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, where he was to speak, Trump told reporters that Hamas would disarm, according to comments reported by Reuters. When asked if the war was over, he told reporters “yes.”

Twenty Israeli hostages are expected to be released in total on Monday, along with 28 additional captives, including 26 confirmed dead and two whose status remains uncertain. In exchange for the hostages, Israel is expected to release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Trump will address the Israeli parliament after meeting hostage families. He is then due to travel to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt for a major international summit with around 20 other world leaders to finalize a deal to end the war in Gaza.

The first phase of Trump’s Gaza peace deal and the release of Israeli hostages are being hailed as a major humanitarian and geopolitical development, but with limited economic impact.

“This shows that the United States can achieve results if it exercises its still unrivaled global influence in the right way,” noted Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Bank Berenberg, on Monday.

“The impact on the global economy and markets, however, is expected to remain very limited. If the Houthis stop disrupting shipping via the Red Sea, global shipping costs could decrease slightly. If tensions in the Middle East ease further, the global impact could be more pronounced in the long term – but that is still a very big if,” Schmieding noted.