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WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday that he plans to speak to Israel’s Knesset and then visit Cairo as he travels to the Middle East and Hamas releases its final 20 Israeli hostages.
“I’ll be going to Israel. I’ll be speaking at the Knesset, I think early on, and then I’m also going to Egypt. They were terrific,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump will be on the ground in the region when Hamas releases the remaining captives seized in the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack that started the war.
The president is expected to participate in a formal peace-deal signing while in the Egyptian capital, formalizing the first phase of implementation of his 20-point peace plan.
“Gaza is going to be rebuilt,” Trump said, citing anticipated financing from wealthy Arab neighbors.
The president also noted that he will supervise reconstruction of the 2 million-person region as chairman of the “Board of Peace” in charge of monitoring the to-be-announced transitional Palestinian government.
“We’re also setting up, as you know, a Board of Peace,” Trump told the press.
“It’s called the Board of Peace. I don’t know if that’s the final name, but the word ‘peace’ is definitely in there. They have asked me if I chair it. We’ll make sure things go well.”
The first phase of Trump’s peace plan, accepted by both Israel and Hamas, features a cease-fire and the first of three proposed Israeli military pullbacks, in addition to the hostage release.
The US military is involved in providing logistical support to a burgeoning international peacekeeping force for Gaza, which American officials say will include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and possibly the UAE.
“They’re all tired of the fighting,” Trump said ahead of his trip.
“Don’t forget, you had October 7, which was a horrible day, 1,200 people killed, but Hamas has lost 58,000 people. That’s big retribution.”
Trump touted the fact that the governments of Russia and Iran have supported his peace initiative and said that Arab countries’ residents were “dancing in the streets.”
He said he brought Hamas to a deal because “I spoke a little bit tough… they knew the retribution would be tremendous, unsustainable… It would have been complete obliteration.”
Trump said he would return to the White House Tuesday to bestow the late Charlie Kirk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
