On Wednesday, Presdient Trump announced a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas, after the two sides signed off on “the first Phase” of a peace deal announced late last month. The agreement marks a major reprieve to halt more than two years of war after the militant group’s initial attack that killed approximately 1,200 Israelis and when more than 250 hostages were taken captive.
Trump, in his interview on “Hannity,” said the hostage deal will include the return of the 20 living hostages as well as the 28 bodies that Hamas is still holding.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from Trump, agreed to the president’s 20-point plan for ending the war with Hamas. The president relied on a coalition of leaders from Arab, Gulf and Muslim-majority countries to pressure the Palestinian group to also accept the deal.
Trump, in his interview with Hannity, said he spoke to Netanyahu earlier that night and described the moment as a “beautiful picture” that helps Israel’s public image.
“It’s so good for Israel. I spoke to Bibi Netanyahu just a little while ago. He called. He said, ‘I can’t believe it.’ He said, ‘Everybody’s liking me now’ — meaning him. I said that, ‘More importantly, they’re loving Israel again,’ and they really are,” the president told the Fox News host, using the nickname for the Israeli leader.
He continued, describing the conversation further: “I said, ‘Israel cannot fight the world, Bibi. They can’t fight the world.’ And he understands that very well.”
“So it’s amazing the way it’s all come together, and it’s a beautiful picture. I don’t know if it could ever happen again. It was just a set of circumstances,” Trump said, adding, “So many different things happened that were so amazing. It’s a lot of talent involved, I’ll tell you. But there was a certain degree of luck too. You know, you need luck also. There is such a thing as luck.”
Earlier on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that Trump was “considering going to the Middle East shortly” after his routine, annual medical checkup at Walter Reed Medical Center.
“I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday, actually, and we’ll see,” Trump told reporters. “But there’s a very good chance. Negotiations are going along very well. We’re dealing with Hamas and many of the countries. As you know, we have a Muslim, all of the Muslim countries are included. All of the Arab countries are included. Very rich countries and some that are not so rich, but just about everybody is included.”
The president also spoke Wednesday evening with families of the hostages taken by Hamas, who were in Washington meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The group cheered and thanked Trump for securing a deal.
President Trump says he expects the remaining hostages to be released from Gaza on Monday as part of the first phrase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan.
“The big thing is hostages are going to be released. It’s probably, our time, would be probably Monday, and you know, it’s… a terrible situation there,” the president said late Wednesday in a phone interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity.
Referring to where Hamas is holding those taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023, Trump continued, “They’re deep, they’re deep in the earth, and they’re being gotten, and a lot of things are happening right now.”
“As we speak, so much is happening to get the hostages freed, and we think they’ll all be coming back on Monday,” he added.
