On September 29, 2025, United States President Donald Trump presented his 20-point Gaza peace plan to the White House along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who agreed to the terms of President Trump’s plan. On October 9, 2025, the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was announced by President Trump, and confirmed by both parties early that day, with Israel’s government approving the ceasefire on October 10. The plan is set to return the hostages that were taken from Israel by Hamas on October 7, 2023, return Palestinian prisoners to Gaza from Israel, send humanitarian aid into Gaza, and help stabilize the region.

The Israel-Hamas war started on October 7, 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 Israelis and Americans and kidnapping 251. According to NPR, about 67,000 Palestinians have been killed and around 170,000 have been wounded over the course of the war, and many Palestinians have been displaced and have gone days without food. The plan set forth by President Trump calls for an end to the conflict for people living in Israel and Gaza who have felt the effects of the war for the past two years.

On Monday, October 13, over 20 world leaders gathered at a summit at Sharm el-Sheikh, led by President Trump and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, to discuss how to end the Israel-Hamas war and the fate of the Gaza Strip.

Speaking on his plans for the ceasefire at the summit, President Trump said “All I’ve done all my life is deals. The greatest deals just sort of happen… That’s what happened right here. And maybe this is going to be the greatest deal of them all.”

According to the Associated Press, el-Sissi called President Trump’s peace plan the “last chance” for peace in the region. Currently, el-Sissi is advocating for a two-state solution, claiming that Palestinians have the right to their own independent state. In his speech at the summit, el-Sissi also awarded President Trump with the Order of the Nile, which is the highest civilian honor in Egypt.

The plan for the ceasefire also included details for restoring Gaza, which is currently facing a humanitarian crisis with thousands of people displaced. Also, on August 22, 2025, the UN declared a state of famine in parts of Gaza after Israeli restrictions on aid and food in the region. The UN currently plans to send about 600 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza each day, along with providing support to community kitchens, fishermen, and herders, and giving money to families to purchase food necessities.

“Almost the entire population of Gaza needed some form of food aid, including 500,000 people who needed treatment to address the effects of famine. The [UN] had a plan to scale up delivery of aid over the first 60 days of the cease-fire,” Tom Fletcher, the top humanitarian official at the United Nations, said to The New York Times.

According to The New York Times, the same day as the summit, Hamas released all of the 20 living hostages, and Israeli authorities believed that there were 20 living hostages and the remains of 28 others left in Gaza of the 250 people taken on October 7. The bodies of four deceased hostages were also brought back on October 13, and four more were brought back on October 14. Israel has also released nearly 1,900 Palestinian prisoners who were transported by bus to Ramallah in the West Bank and also to the Gaza Strip. Many of these prisoners were detainees who were seized during the war and held without charges when hospitals and shelters in Gaza were raided by Israeli forces. About 250 of the released prisoners were also Palestinians who were put in prison for deadly attacks on Israel that reached back decades, and about 154 of those people had been exiled to Egypt.

On Monday, Vicky Cohen’s son, 21-year-old Israeli soldier Nimrod Cohen, was returned to Israel. Cohen spoke with CNN reporters at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel.

“Yesterday was the most sentimental day of my life. Nimrod returned to us extremely thin, tired, and exhausted – but with a huge smile on his face,” Cohen said. “But don’t let the smile fool you – the road ahead is still long. We are all committed to this mission: to help Nimrod return to as normal a life as possible. We will embrace him, wrap him in love, and together, hand in hand, we will accompany him on this long journey.”