Trump speaks in Israel now as Hamas releases all living hostages — live updates U.S. president aims to decisively end war on whirlwind day of international diplomacy in Israel and Egypt.

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Trump speaks in Israel now as Hamas releases all living hostages — live updates U.S. president aims to decisively end war on whirlwind day of international diplomacy in Israel and Egypt.

More than two years after the devastating Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders are set to gather in Egypt on Monday to oversee the end to fighting in Gaza.

Happening today:

— Hamas released the last 20 living hostages as agreed early Monday.

— Trump has landed in Israel, where he’ll address the Israeli Knesset and meet with the families of Israeli hostages.

— Trump and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, will chair a peace summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where a deal ending the war will be signed, though neither Israel or Hamas is expected to attend.

— European leaders — including France’s Emmanuel Macron, the U.K.’s Keir Starmer, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Spain’s Pedro Sánchez, along with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — will be present for the deal.


Trump cracked that he would be “quite late” to the peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh today — because of lengthy speeches from Israeli lawmakers in the Knesset.

“They might not be there by the time I get there, but we’re going to give it a shot,” Trump said about the world leaders assembling in Egypt as events continue in Jerusalem.

Trump, rarely brief, has been speaking for an hour himself … including multiple digressions on tariffs, B-2 bombers, artificial intelligence, a debate with Hillary Clinton and how the U.S. is the hottest country in the world.


In his Knesset address, Trump said the Middle East is “finally ready to embrace its extraordinary potential,” while arguing the region had seen “decades of fomenting terrorism, extremism, jihadism and antisemitism.”

“They’ve been a disaster … They’ve just totally backfired,” he said.

“Those bitter hatreds have delivered nothing but misery, suffering, failure and death. They’ve served not to weaken Israel, but to annihilate the very forces that did the most to foment this hatred,” he added.


Who are the two Israeli lawmakers removed from the Knesset?

The two lawmakers removed from the Knesset after heckling Donald Trump have had previous run-ins with parliamentary authorities. Ayman Aadil Odeh, an Arab-Israeli lawyer and leader of the far-left Hadash alliance, and Ofer Cassif, a member of his party, have been sanctioned in the past.

In June the Knesset House Committee approved a petition for his expulsion from parliament after Odeh said in a speech, “Gaza has won and Gaza will win.” But a full vote for his expulsion failed when a required threshold of 90 votes wasn’t met. During the 2015 election campaign Odeh clashed with Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, during a television debate.

Lieberman dubbed Odeh, who was born in Haifa. a “Palestinian citizen” and said Odeh wasn’t welcome in Israel. Odeh responded: “I am very welcome in my homeland. I am part of the nature, the surroundings, the landscape,” and contrasted his birth in Israel with Lieberman’s immigration from the former Soviet Union.

In October 2023, Cassif, an Israeli Jew, was sanctioned after saying the Hamas attack was the consequence of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. He described the Israeli government as “fascist.” The comments led to a 45-day suspension by the Knesset ethics panel, which he characterized as “another nail in the coffin of freedom of political expression.” In 2024 he narrowly escaped expulsion from the Knesset.


Trump riffs on Witkoff and Russia

Donald Trump singled out his everything envoy Steve Witkoff for praise, calling him “a great businessman,” but one who had “no idea about Russia” or Vladimir Putin before getting the job of top White House negotiator with Moscow.

“Didn’t know too much about politics, wasn’t that interested. He was really good at real estate. But he had that quality that I was looking for,” Trump said.

Trump said Witkoff spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for five hours during a meeting he had personally set up.

“That’s talent,” Trump said. “Everybody loves him.”