The war is over, Trump says, on a historic day for the Middle East

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday declared the war in the Middle East is over, as he began 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 the Israeli parliament, the Knesset where he was due to speak, Trump told reporters that Hamas will disarm, according to comments reported by Reuters. When asked whether the war was over, he told reporters “yes.”

Twenty Israeli hostages are expected to be released in total on Monday, as well as 28 additional captives — including 26 confirmed dead and two whose status remains uncertain. In exchange for the hostages, Israel is due to release almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Trump will address the Israeli parliament after meeting with hostage families. He is then due to travel to Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt for a major international summit with around 20 other world leaders to finalize an agreement to end the war in Gaza.

The first phase of Trump’s peace deal for Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages is being hailed as a great humanitarian and geopolitical development, but one with a limited economic impact.

“It shows that the U.S. can get results if it wields its still unsurpassed global clout the right way,” Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank noted Monday.

“The impact on the global economy and markets should remain very limited, though. If the Houthis stop disrupting shipping through the Red Sea, global transport costs may fall slightly. If tensions in the Middle East subside much further, the global impact could be more pronounced in the long run – but that remains a very big if,” Schmieding noted.