US President Donald Trump gestures as he steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Ben Gurion Airport on the outskirts of Lod near Tel Aviv on October 13, 2025, as he travels to Israel and Egypt.
Saul Loeb | Episode | Getty Images
US President Donald Trump declared the war in the Middle East over on Monday as he embarked on a momentous trip to the region to finalize a peace deal for Gaza.
Trump arrived in Tel Aviv earlier Monday to mark the release of Israeli hostages by Hamas after more than two years in captivity.
As he arrived at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, where he was due to speak, Trump told reporters that Hamas will disarm, according to comments seen by Reuters. When asked if the war was over, he told reporters “yes”.
A total of 20 Israeli hostages are expected to be released on Monday, as well as 28 additional prisoners – including 26 confirmed dead and two whose status remains uncertain. In exchange for the hostages, Israel will release nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Trump will address Israel's parliament after meeting with hostage families. He will then travel to Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt for a major international summit with about twenty other world leaders to finalize an agreement to end the war in Gaza.
The first phase of Trump's Gaza peace deal and the release of Israeli hostages has been hailed as a major humanitarian and geopolitical development, but one with limited economic impact.
“It shows that the US can deliver if it uses its still unsurpassed global influence properly,” Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank, noted on Monday.
“However, the impact on the global economy and markets should remain very limited. If the Houthis stop disrupting shipping through the Red Sea, global transport costs could fall slightly. If tensions in the Middle East ease much further, the global impact could be greater in the long term – but that remains a very high question,” Schmieding said.
