The Peace President: Trump Brokers Israel-Hamas Hostage Release, Ceasefire

President Donald J. Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. This was true during his first term when he brokered the Abraham Accords, and it’s even more true today.

The president of the United States has brokered a phase one deal between Israel and Hamas. The deal has received the full support of, legitimately, everybody in the region, including countries all over Europe. All are in favor of the full-scale release of 20 living hostages who have been kept in solitude, in tunnels, and starved for two years at this point, since October 7, 2023.

And the president deserves full marks for this. So, too, does the Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, who has steadfastly said that Israel would get back its hostages and would also win the war. There’s a lot of talk about Netanyahu caving to partial hostage deals. There’s a lot of pressure for him to do so. Instead, he said, everybody must be released.

The president not only backed that play, he also brokered the deal itself, though we have yet to see what the rest of the deal would look like.

To understand where we are, this is phase one of the deal. In this phase, the living hostages are supposed to be released, possibly by Monday. That’s what the president said, though it could be earlier.

Hamas is claiming they don’t have the bodies of 28 of the deceased hostages. The remaining hostages are supposed to be handed over. The deceased hostages are apparently dispersed across the Gaza Strip. Hamas wants more time to look for those dead bodies. We know they’ve played games about this sort of stuff before.

In return, Israel is going to release some 250 Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons, as well as 1,700 Palestinian terrorists who have been detained in Gaza for fighting Israel during the war. It’s unclear who’s on the list at this point.

Israeli Defense Forces will also withdraw to a preset line inside the Gaza Strip, not to what may be a final settlement line, which would involve a buffer zone around the edge of the Gaza Strip. That would require a provisional government in place and all the rest. But some percentage of the enclave will be pulled back by the IDF, and the Rafah Border Crossing will reopen, with Egypt apparently willing to facilitate the delivery of aid. 

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Now, of course, this is dangerous for Israel. Aid facilitated by Egypt into the Gaza Strip could presumably be used by Hamas to rearm. And so what happens in phase two is going to be very important here, in terms of fully ending the war, and not just being another ceasefire. 

Achieving the release of the hostages, however, is a massive step forward, particularly for Israel. If Hamas no longer holds hostages, then they no longer have leverage to stop Israel from killing their terror leaders and destroying their terror enclaves. That leverage goes away. Hamas is counting on pressure from the United States in the Arab world to prevent Israel from doing that in the future, and allowing them to reconstitute. I highly doubt President Trump will be warm to that idea. In fact, even the Arab world is not warm toward the idea of allowing Hamas to reconstitute itself anymore.

Al Jazeera — which is a Qatari-backed propagandist group on behalf of terrorism all across the region — put out an editorial calling for Hamas to disarm. So even Qatar understands at this point that Hamas cannot be a part of the Gazan future.

President Trump announced this on Truth Social: 

I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace. All Parties will be treated fairly! This is a GREAT Day for the Arab and Muslim World, Israel, all surrounding Nations, and the United States of America, and we thank the mediators from Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, who worked with us to make this Historic and Unprecedented Event happen. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!

Again, President Trump deserves full marks for not only brokering this deal, but also completely changing the math around.

In terms of public relations, obviously, Israel has been subjected to two years of full-scale legacy media lies, TikTok lies, and social media lies. Literally within the first week of the war, there were claims that Israel was committing a genocide. Thanks to the virality of the claims and the repetition in the legacy media, those claims only escalated. They were never true throughout the entire war. 

There’s no question, however, that Israel suffered a lot in terms of public relations up to and including nations moving to isolate Israel and trying to preliminarily declare a Palestinian state — with no government, no borders, and no responsibility for their own citizens.

President Trump shifted that around. He took a look at the situation and said, “Listen, we’re going to get to a deal now.” And then he put pressure in the right places. He offered carrots and he offered sticks.

The Prime Minister of Israel put out a statement. 

With the approval of the first phase of the plan, all our hostages will be brought home. This is a diplomatic success and a national and moral victory for the State of Israel.

From the beginning, I made it clear: we will not rest until all our hostages return and all our goals are achieved. 

Through steadfast resolve, powerful military action, and the great efforts of our great friend and ally President Trump, we have reached this critical turning point.

I thank President Trump for his leadership, his partnership, and his unwavering commitment to the safety of Israel and the freedom of our hostages. 

God Bless Israel.
God Bless America.
God Bless our great alliance.

With the approval of the first phase of the plan, all our hostages will be brought home. This is a diplomatic success and a national and moral victory for the State of Israel.

From the beginning, I made it clear: we will not rest until all our hostages return and all our goals…

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) October 8, 2025

And of course, I spoke with the prime minister just a couple of days ago. You can watch that interview here to understand the prime minister’s view of the war, how far Israel has come, and where Israel stands in the region at this time.

The president of the United States is scheduled to travel to Egypt to presumably sign the agreement and then travel to Israel, where he is now scheduled to address the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, on Sunday.

The level of excitement for the deal, President Trump’s visit, and so that they can celebrate him, is extraordinary. I don’t think there will be anything remotely like it, frankly, in Israeli history with regard to a welcome for a leader from the United States. President Trump has roughly a 95% approval rating in the state of Israel. And that is for a reason, because President Trump inherently understands the Middle East in a way that Westerners typically do not understand the Middle East.

He understands that in the Middle East, power rules. He understands that in the Middle East, there is no solution but moving through.

He understands that in the Middle East, concessions are seen generally as a sign of weakness. And what he understands most of all is that the role of the United States is very often to provide the carrot, while Israel provides the stick.

At this point, there’s no question the president of the United States deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Who else will they give it to? Greta Thunberg? Barack Obama received one for being alive and breathing and for simply being elected president of the United States. Even Yasser Arafat, the arch-terrorist, received a Nobel Peace Prize.

If President Donald J. Trump does not win the Nobel Peace Prize, then it’s time to disband the committee.