Michael Gabriel Hernandez
13 October 2025•Update: 13 October 2025
WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the implementation of his Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal has reached advanced stages as he met with global leaders in Egypt.
Before departing for the gathering in Sharm el-Sheikh Trump acknowledged that the phases of his deal "are all a little bit mixed in with each other."
"We're actually in stage three and four. It's not going to be, you know, just divided down so simply, we can be long advanced on some of the things that we say we're going to do. We can take them out of order in a positive way," Trump later said, flanked by dozens of global leaders who gathered for the ceasefire signing ceremony.
"We've shown how it can be done with responsible nations like the people in this room, these incredible people in this room, setting aside their differences, seeking common ground and pursuing a better world for all of us," he added.
The US president said some of the leaders present for the summit would be on what he is calling Gaza "Board of Peace," which under Trump's plan would oversee a committee of Palestinians and international experts that would govern Gaza.
Trump earlier said reconstruction in Gaza has commenced as regional states finance the effort.
"In another room, you have the wealthiest, some of the wealthiest nations in the world, all leaders. The big leaders are here, the emirs and the kings and everybody," he said. "I think you'll see some tremendous progress both in the Middle East."
The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Friday under Trump’s plan to end the two-year Israeli war on the enclave.
Earlier Monday, Hamas and Israel carried out a prisoner swap deal that saw hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released from Israel's notorious Ofer military prison, and Israeli prison facilities in the Negev Desert. All 20 living Israeli hostages were also released from captivity.
Trump said efforts are underway to locate the bodies of the hostages who died in captivity, saying "they know where numerous are, you know, I guess five or six are in yet now."
"They're looking for bodies. They know the areas and the search parties out, and they're doing it in conjunction with Israel, and they're going to be finding quite a few of them," he said.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 67,800 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, leaving the enclave largely uninhabitable.
