SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt: Leaders of the United States, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye on Monday signed a declaration in Sharm el-Sheikh to serve as guarantors of a Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending two years of devastating Israeli military offensive that has killed at least 67,869 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023.
The agreement, reached after weeks of high-level negotiations, outlines a framework for maintaining the ceasefire, rebuilding war-torn Gaza, and setting parameters for future political talks between Israeli and Palestinian representatives.
“This document is going to spell out rules and regulations and lots of other things,” said US President Donald Trump before signing the declaration.
“It’s going to hold up,” he added, calling the event “a tremendous day for the world and the Middle East.”
HISTORIC MOMENT.
President Donald J. Trump, alongside the leaders of Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, signs the Gaza Peace Plan for peace in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/depaxQO8g2
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 13, 2025
Trump Calls It a ‘Tremendous Day’
Addressing more than two dozen world leaders attending the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit, Trump said the declaration marked the start of “a new chapter” for regional peace.
“This is a tremendous day for the world, it’s a tremendous day for the Middle East,” he told delegates.
The summit, co-hosted by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, focused on ensuring the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire and mapping out the next phase of negotiations to achieve lasting peace.
Sisi praised Trump’s role, calling him “the only one capable of bringing peace to our region.” Trump, in turn, lauded Sisi for his mediation efforts with Hamas, saying the Palestinian group “respects the leadership of Egypt.”
Trump, Abbas Meeting
On the sidelines of the summit, Trump met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the first time in eight years. The two leaders exchanged a brief handshake and spoke privately during the summit.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who escorted Abbas to the podium, said the meeting symbolised “a necessary step towards restoring trust.”
Trump later confirmed that the “second phase” of the peace process had begun, focusing on reconstruction and humanitarian relief. “They’re going to start cleaning up. You look at Gaza—it needs a lot of clean-up,” he told reporters.
Phase Two of Gaza Negotiations ‘Has Started’
Trump has been asked by reporters in Sharm el-Sheikh about when the second phase of the negotiations is going to begin, Al Jazeera reported.
“It’s started, as far as we are concerned,” he said during his meeting with el-Sisi.
“Phase two has started, and you know the phases are all a little bit mixed in with each other,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi held a meeting with the leaders of Turkiye, Qatar, and France, among others, to help coordinate the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire, Al Jazeera reported.
Reconstruction efforts for the battered Palestinian enclave were also discussed, according to a statement by the Egyptian president’s office.
Trump Thanks PM Sharif and Field Marshal Munir
During an address at the Gaza summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, US President Donald Trump acknowledged Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his “favourite Field Marshal from Pakistan” before giving the floor to PM Sharif to deliver a speech.
“I would say this is one of the greatest days in contemporary history, because peace has been achieved after untiring efforts,” PM Sharif said.
“Efforts led by President Trump, who is genuinely a man of peace who had relentlessly and untiringly worked throughout these months, day in and day out, to make this world a place to live in peace and prosperity,” he added.
PM Sharif reiterated that Pakistan nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his “outstanding, extraordinary contributions to first, stop war between India and Pakistan and then achieve a ceasefire, along with his very wonderful team”.
“Again, I would like to nominate this great president for the Nobel Peace Prize, because I genuinely fel he is the most genuine and most wonderful candidate for the peace prize because he has brought not only peace in South Asia — saved millions of people, their livews — and today, achieving peace in Gaza [and] saving, millions of lvies in the middle east.”
PM Sharif added that Trump was the “man the world needed most at this point in time” and said that the world would remember him as someone who “stopped seven, now eight, wars”.
Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza
The truce comes after two years of intense Israeli military operations following Hamas’s October 2023 attack.
According to Gaza health authorities, more than 67,869 Palestinians have been killed, and almost all of the enclave’s two million residents displaced at least once since the war began.
Gaza’s infrastructure lies in ruins, and the territory remains almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid.
Under the terms of the agreement, Israel has released around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of Hamas’s remaining 20 living Israeli hostages.
The Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration commits its guarantors — the US, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye — to monitor compliance with the truce and facilitate ongoing dialogue.
It also calls for increased humanitarian access and a coordinated international reconstruction effort under UN supervision.
Turkey, Iraq’s Pressure Forced Netanyahu to Pull Out of Gaza summit
The opposition of Turkiye and Iraq to the presence of Benjamin Netanyahu at Monday’s Gaza summit in Egypt prompted him to cancel at the last minute, two diplomatic sources told AFP.
“At the initiative of President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and through Turkiye’s diplomatic efforts — with the support of other leaders — Netanyahu did not attend the meeting in Egypt,” a Turkish diplomatic source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the press.
According to Turkish media reports, Erdogan learned of Netanyahu’s expected attendance while en route to Sharm El-Sheikh, with his plane circling over the Red Sea and refusing to touch down until it was confirmed he would not be attending.
Separately, an advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani told AFP the Iraqi delegation would boycott the summit if Netanyahu was there.
“The Iraqi delegation informed the Egyptian side that it was not prepared to participate in the regional summit if Netanyahu attended,” presidential adviser Ali al-Mousawi told AFP.
“Iraq has taken a clear position on this matter and has informed the Egyptians of its rejection, and a number of other delegations have announced their intention to withdraw if Netanyahu participates.”
He said Cairo had then informed Netanyahu he “could not be received, which led to the cancellation of his participation in the conference”.
