US President-elect Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would use the Gaza ceasefire agreement as momentum to expand the Abraham Accords, US-backed agreements signed during the president-elect’s first term that normalized relations of Israel with several Arab countries.
On Wednesday, negotiators reached a phased agreement to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, after 15 months of conflict that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and inflamed tensions in the Middle East.
The deal includes the gradual release of hostages captured by Hamas-led militants during the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
Trump, who has repeatedly threatened there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released before his Jan. 20 inauguration, said he was “thrilled to see the American and Israeli hostages return home.”
“With this agreement in place, my National Security team, through the efforts of Special Envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, will continue to work closely with Israel and our allies to ensure that Gaza NEVER again becomes a safe haven for terrorists,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He said he will build on the momentum of the ceasefire to expand the Abraham Accords, which normalized Israel’s ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
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Israeli troops invaded Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen broke through security barriers and invaded communities in the Israeli border area on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and kidnapping more than 250 foreign and Israeli hostages.
Since then, Israel’s air and ground war in Gaza has killed more than 46,000 people, according to figures from the Gaza Health Ministry, and left the coastal enclave a wasteland of rubble with hundreds of thousands of displaced people battling the cold. winter in tents and makeshift shelters.
