Trump Sets Off for the Mideast to Mark a Ceasefire Deal

President Donald Trump set off for Israel and Egypt on Sunday to celebrate the US-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas and urge Middle East allies to seize the opportunity to build a durable peace in the volatile region.

- Agencies

It's a fragile moment with Israel and Hamas only in the early stages of implementing the first phase of the Trump agreement, designed to bring a permanent end to the war sparked by the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants.

Trump thinks there is a narrow window to reshape the Mideast and reset long-fraught relations between Israel and its Arab neighbours.

Itis a moment, the Republican president says, that has been helped along by his administration’s support of Israel's decimation of Iranian proxies, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon

“Very excited about this moment in time,” Trump told reporters before Air Force One took off.

He said many people in both Israel and Arab countries were “cheering” the agreement, adding that “everybody's amazed and they are thrilled and we're going to have an amazing time.”

The White House says momentum is also building because Arab and Muslim states are demonstrating a renewed focus on resolving the broader, decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. and, in some cases, deepening relations with the United States.

Trump's comments as the trip began followed him saying Friday that, “I think you are going to have tremendous success and Gaza is going to be rebuilt” and that “you have some very wealthy countries, as you know, over there. It would take a small fraction of their wealth to do that. And I think they want to do it.”

A tenuous point in the agreement