TODAY marks the dawn of a new era of hope for the Middle East.
As US Vice-President JD Vance said yesterday, a truce brokered by Donald Trump has brought the region to “the cusp of true peace”.
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Donald Trump, pictured with Benjamin Netanyahu, has brought the Middle East to ‘the cusp of true peace’Credit: Reuters
While other world leaders postured and bewailed, the US President used his extraordinary power of persuasion to force Hamas and Israel to strike a deal to end two years of bloodshed.
It means thousands of Palestinians will return to what is left of their homes and get the food and medical aid they need, and Israelis can welcome back loved ones taken hostage during the terrorist massacre which started the conflict.
The 19th Century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck once said that politics is “the art of the possible”.
But hard-nosed businessman President Trump has proved it can also be “the art of the deal”.
The path to lasting peace is still littered with pitfalls.
Oct. 10 (UPI) — Israeli forces in Gaza began pulling back to pre-agreed positions Friday in line with the terms of the cease-fire and hostage release agreement requiring a partial withdrawal within 24 hours of the Israeli cabinet signing off on the deal.
The Israel Defense Forces posted a video on X of troops preparing to pull out and military vehicles moving under the cover of darkness.
“Southern Command in the midst of adjusting operational positions in Gaza,” it said, but warned that troops were still deployed in the area and would counter any threats that emerged.
IDF Radio said the IDF projected that its forces would have withdrawn to the agreed positions by noon local time.
The BBC said troops had started to pull out from the north-western areas of Gaza City while local residents in other locations reported similar maneuvers.
However, Israeli armor remained in place in locations from which forces were due to withdraw under the first phase of the plan, including the coastal road and parts of Khan Yunis in the south where Israeli air strikes were reported overnight.
Artillery and gunfire were also heard near the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza.
The cease-fire was supposed to take effect immediately after being approved by the Israeli government in the early hours of Friday, local time.
The three-phase pullout mandates IDF troops permanently withdraw to a so-called “yellow line” in U.S. President Donald Trump‘s peace plan that will leave Israel in control of about 53% of the Palestinian enclave within 24 hours of Israeli government approval of the deal, which came just before 2 a.m.
For its part, Hamas is required to hand back 48 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be living, by noon on Monday, while at the same time Israel will release 1,700 Palestinians held in its prisons.
Flows of humanitarian aid was also due to recommence with all restrictions lifted immediately.
U.S. officials said the Pentagon was redeploying a force of as many as 200 troops from other Middle East missions to Israel to lead a multinational force to monitor the truce.
They stressed their presence would be in a coordinating role only and that there would be no U.S. boots on the ground in Gaza.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it stood by ready to assist in the hostage-prisoner swap, including reuniting families with the remains of their loved ones, as it had done in previous deals over the past two years since the Oct. 7 attacks.
The NGO said in a news release that its teams were prepared to deliver and safely distribute lifesaving aid to those who needed it most in Gaza.
The United Nations said it was standing ready to get to work implementing a 60-day plan 60-day comprehensive plan to deliver critical aid, including hundreds of thousands tons of food, medicine and other supplies.
“Our plan, detailed and tested, is in place. Our supplies, 170,000 metric tons, are in place. And our team, courageous and expert and determined, are in place,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher told a news conference in New York.
“We will aim to increase the pipeline of supplies to hundreds of trucks every day. We will scale up the provision of food across Gaza to reach 2.1 million people who need food aid and around 500,000 people who need nutrition.
Famine must be reversed in areas where it has taken hold and prevented in others. So we will be distributing in-kind rations. We’ll be supporting bakeries, community kitchens. We’ll be supporting herders and fishers in restoring their livelihoods,” said Fletcher, who also serves as the Office of Humanitarian Affairs’ emergency relief coordinator.
About 200,000 families would also receive cash payouts to use to shop at public markets to cover their basic food needs.
Meanwhile, Israel was preparing to welcome Trump, who was expected to travel to Jerusalem on Sunday to address the Knesset. Hostage families also want him to come and speak in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, which has been unofficially dubbed “Hostage Square.”
Speaking in the Oval office on Thursday, Trump said that he hoped to be in Israel for when the hostages were released “on Monday or Tuesday.
However, Israeli media were reporting that Trump’s visit will be short, with the president scheduled to fly out of Israel again late Sunday.
Trump has been snubbed and denied the Nobel Prize he so wanted
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María Corina Machado – a Venezuelan politician – won the awardCredit: Getty
He insisted the breakthrough was “signed, sealed and already started” — and hailed it as the crowning achievement of a presidency he says has stopped eight wars.
“It’s certainly, I think, to the mind of most, the most important deal ever made in terms of peace,” Trump said on Friday.
The president said the ceasefire marked “a great deal for Israel, but it’s a great deal for everybody — for Arabs, for Muslims, for the world,” and confirmed that the release of hostages would begin on Monday.
“We’re getting them now. They’re gathering them from some pretty rough places on earth,” he said.
The decision to snub Trump came the day after Israel and Hamas signed a peace deal that he engineered to end the war and return the hostages.
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was instead awarded to María Corina Machado – a Venezuelan politician and activist – for her “tireless work” organising the democratic opposition to dictatorship in Venezuela.
The US President accused China of taking an “extraordinarily aggressive position” on trade, slamming what he called an “extremely hostile letter to the world” that outlined measures to control “virtually every product they make”.
Posting on Truth Social, Trump vowed to hit back hard, saying he would also impose US export controls on any critical software heading to China.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan politician Machado dedicated the Nobel Prize to the US President.
She wrote on X: “This recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is a boost to conclude our task: to conquer Freedom.
“We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy.
“I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
The Nobel Committee paid tribute to Machado’s “struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.
It said the award was in recognition of her “tireless work” to protect rights and fight for a transition to democracy in Venezuela.
Trump says Hamas & Israel agree historic deal freeing hostages and an end to fighting in first phase of peace plan
Announcing the winner, Jørgen Watne Frydnes lauded her as “a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness”.
He said: “When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.”
He later explained why the US president was not given the award.
He said: “I think this committee has seen [every] type of campaign [and] media attention. We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people saying what, for them, leads to peace.”
“But this committee sits in a room with the portraits of all laureates and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So, we base only our decision on the work and will of Alfred Nobel.”
Machado has been living in hiding for the past year, after her fearless work incited “serious threats against her life”.
Troubled Venezuela is currently ruled by Nicolás Maduro, who is widely recognised as a dictator.
His government has routinely targeted its real or perceived opponents.
Machado, who turned 58 this week, was set to run against Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government disqualified her.
The election results announced by the Electoral Council sparked protests across the country to which the government responded with force that ended with more than 20 people dead.
Machado went into hiding and has not been seen in public since January.
Trump, who is in his second term as America’s president, has long wished for a Nobel Peace Prize.
He claims to have stopped seven conflicts in the world since his time in the office – and has made no secret of the fact that he believes he is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Last week, he teased the possibility of ending an eighth war if Israel and Hamas agree to his peace plan aimed at concluding the nearly two-year war in Gaza.
And just hours before the Nobel Peace Prize results were set to be announced, Don revealed to the world that the two warring factions had signed a peace deal – one that he engineered.
It is indeed a massive breakthrough that is set to reshape the face of the Middle East – and the world is praising the US leaders’ effort to broker the deal.
However, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prestigious peace prize, held its final meeting on Monday, the Nobel Institute said.
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Jorgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announced the winner this morningCredit: AFP
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Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip celebrate after the announcementCredit: AP
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Palestinians celebrate on a street following the news that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of the peace dealCredit: Reuters
This means that the decision to give the award to Machado was made before the conclusion of an agreement between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday night.
Historian Asle Sveen, a specialist in the Nobel Prize, said he was “one hundred per cent certain” that Trump will not win this year’s Nobel Prize.
He emphasised that the US president had long “given free rein” to Netanyahu to bomb Gaza and had provided significant military aid to Israel – something that the prize committee must have taken into account.
A global ‘peacemaker’
All eyes were on his nomination this year after the self-proclaimed peacemaker launched a campaign in a bid to win the award.
He has repeatedly asserted since his return to the White House in January that he deserves the nod, adding it would be “a big insult” to the United States if he were not given the prize.
In February this year, during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, he said: “They will never give me a Nobel Peace Prize. I deserve it, but they will never give it to me.”
Even during his speech at the 80th UN General Assembly in New York, Trump said that “everyone” says he should get it.
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Benjamin Netanyahu’s office posted an AI-generated picture of Bibi awarding Trump the Nobel PrizeCredit: X
He said: “Everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize for each one of these achievements, but for me, the real prize will be the sons and daughters who live to grow up with their mothers and fathers, because millions of people are no longer being killed in endless and unglorious wars.
“What I care about is not winning prizes as much as saving lives.”
Numerous world leaders endorsed him for the honour, including Netanyahu, who posted an AI-generated image of him awarding Trump the Nobel Prize.
Olivier Nduhungirehe, the Rwandan foreign minister, credited Trump for how he helped end the 30-year conflict between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Pakistan also endorsed Trump for the prize this year. Though the Islamic Republic slammed him for bombing Iran in less than 24 hours.
Putin said Russia supported Trump’s nomination as long as Washington did not supply long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
Experts say the Nobel Prize committee may take Trump’s efforts to bring peace in Gaza – if it lasts – into consideration for next year’s award.
How is the Nobel Peace Prize winner decided?
By Patrick Harrington, Foreign News reporter
THE winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is chosen through a highly secretive deliberation process.
Every year since 1901, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has met to discuss who is worthy of taking home prize.
Nominations close in January, and the Committee comes together throughout the next eight months to confer.
Its five members meet along with a secretary in the Committee Room of Oslo’s Nobel institute.
They read aloud the criteria set out by Alfred Nobel in his will.
It says the prize should be awarded to the person who has done the most for fraternity between nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, or for holding or promoting peace congresses.
Then, they enter intense discussions in order to thrash out the decision.
Committee chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes told the BBC: “We discuss, we argue, there is a high temperature.
“But also, of course, we are civilised, and we try to make a consensus-based decision every year.”
If there is no consensus over who should win, then it goes comes down to a simple majority vote.
WASHINGTON — President Trump was passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday despite jockeying from his fellow Republicans, various world leaders and — most vocally — himself.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was honoring Machado “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
Machado, however, said she wanted to dedicate the win to Trump, along with the people of her country, as she praised the president for support of her cause.
The White House responded bitterly to the news of the award Friday, with communications director Steven Cheung saying members of “the Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace” because they didn’t recognize Trump, especially after the Gaza ceasefire deal his administration helped strike this week.
“He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” Cheung wrote on social media.
The White House did not comment on Machado’s recognition, but Trump on social media shared Machado’s post praising him.
Her opposition to President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela aligns with the Trump administration’s own stance on Venezuela, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously praised her as “the personification of resilience, tenacity, and patriotism.”
Trump, who has long coveted the prestigious prize, has been outspoken about his desire for the honor during both of his presidential terms, particularly lately as he takes credit for ending conflicts around the world. The Republican president had expressed doubts that the Nobel committee would ever grant him the award.
“They’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives,” Trump said Thursday.
Although Trump received nominations for the prize, many of them occurred after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award, which fell just a week and a half into his second term. His name was, however, put forward in December by Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York, her office said in a statement, for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states in 2020.
A long history of lobbying for the prize
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the committee has seen various campaigns in its long history of awarding the peace prize.
“We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what for them leads to peace,” he said. “This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates, and that room is filled with both courage and integrity. So we base only our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”
The peace prize, first awarded in 1901, was created partly to encourage ongoing peace efforts. Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that the prize should go to someone “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Three sitting U.S. presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Barack Obama in 2009. Jimmy Carter won the prize in 2002, a full two decades after leaving office. Former Vice President Al Gore received the prize in 2007.
Obama, a Democrat who was a focus of Trump’s attacks well before the Republican was elected, won the prize early in his tenure as president.
“They gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country,” Trump said Thursday.
Wars in Gaza and elsewhere
As one of his reasons for deserving the award, Trump often says he has ended seven wars, though some of the conflicts the president claims to have resolved were merely tensions and his role in easing them is disputed.
But while there is hope for the end to Israel and Hamas’ war, with Israel saying a ceasefire agreement with Hamas came into effect Friday, much remains uncertain about the aspects of the broader plan, including whether and how Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza. And little progress seems to have been made in the Russia-Ukraine war, a conflict Trump claimed during the 2024 campaign that he could end in one day.
As Trump pushes for peaceful resolutions to conflicts abroad, the country he governs remains deeply divided and politically fraught. Trump has kicked off what he hopes to be the largest deportation program in American history to remove immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. He is using the levers of government, including the Justice Department, to go after his perceived political enemies. He has sent the military into U.S. cities over local opposition to stop crime and crack down on immigration enforcement.
He withdrew the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement, dealing a blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming. He touched off global trade wars with his on-again, off-again tariffs, which he wields as a threat to bend other countries and companies to his will. He asserted presidential war powers by declaring cartels to be unlawful combatants and launching lethal strikes on boats in the Caribbean that he alleged were carrying drugs.
The full list of people nominated is secret, but anyone who submits a nomination is free to talk about it. Trump’s detractors say supporters, foreign leaders and others are submitting Trump’s name for nomination for the prize — and announcing it publicly — not because he deserves it but because they see it as a way to manipulate him and stay in his good graces.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who this summer said he was nominating Trump for the prize, on Friday reposted Cheung’s response with the comment: “The Nobel Committee talks about peace. President @realDonaldTrump makes it happen.”
“The facts speak for themselves,” Netanyahu’s office said on X. “President #Trump deserves it.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who sent troops to Ukraine in 2022 and has sought to show alignment with Trump, told reporters in Taijikistan on Friday that it’s not up to him to judge whether Trump should have received the prize, but he praised the ceasefire deal for Gaza.
He also criticized the Nobel Committee’s prior decisions, saying it has in the past awarded the prize to those who have done little to advance global peace.
Putin’s remarks nearly echoed the comments Trump made about Obama, and the U.S. leader responded to his Russian counterpart’s praise by posting on social media: “Thank you to President Putin!”
Others who formally submitted a nomination for Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — but after this year’s deadline — include Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet and Pakistan’s government, all citing his work in helping end conflicts in their regions.
Pesoli and Price write for the Associated Press. AP writers Chris Megerian in Washington, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.
Donald Trump heading to Israel and Egypt on Sunday after Nobel Committee’s decision not to hand him Peace Prize after Gaza deal.
United States President Donald Trump is heading to the Middle East on Sunday as he looks to assert his perceived role as a peacemaker in the region after the Gaza ceasefire deal.
The visit would come days after the Nobel Peace Prize committee overlooked Trump’s public campaigning for the award and handed it to right-wing Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
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The White House has bemoaned the snub, accusing the Norwegian Nobel Committee of putting “place politics over peace”.
But in the Middle East, Trump is likely to be showered with praise from his hosts and credited with securing an end to the war in Gaza and the release of Israeli captives in the territory.
The White House said on Friday that Trump will depart for the Middle East on Sunday night, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Alan Fisher. The US president will first arrive in Israel, where he will make an address on Monday, before continuing on to Egypt, Fisher reported from Washington DC.
Israel and Hamas have already lauded Trump’s role in the negotiations.
But analysts stress that for the deal to turn into long-term peace in Gaza, rather than another brief truce, the US president must pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against restarting the bombardment after the Israeli captives are released.
“I think that Donald Trump wants to oversee this very closely, and I think he wants to continue to send the message to Netanyahu that this is it. At least, that’s what I’m hoping,” said Mohamad Elmasry, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.
“I assume he’s going to go and say very nice things about Benjamin Netanyahu; that’s what he always does publicly. But let’s hope, let’s hope, that he’s going to apply pressure.”
While Trump is taking much of the credit for the deal, experts say other factors pushed the truce over the line, more than two years into the brutal Israeli assault that United Nations investigators have concluded is a genocide.
Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel programme at the Arab Center Washington DC, said after destroying more than 80 percent of the buildings in Gaza while failing to free the captives, Israel was getting “diminishing returns” from its campaign in the territory.
“Israel is facing growing isolation and costs for continuing down this road. And I think there are also Israeli domestic political factors that influenced the timing of this as well,” Munayyer told Al Jazeera.
Similar proposals to the Trump plan have been on the table for the past two years, but Netanyahu has insisted on continuing the war.
However, the latest ceasefire comes at a time when countries across the world, including some of Israel’s Western allies, are condemning its blockade on Gaza and belligerence across the region, including its attack on Qatar last month.
Despite the international outrage, Israel has continued to receive military and diplomatic support from the US.
Not only did the Trump administration fail to denounce Israel’s policy of imposed starvation in Gaza, it also backed the GHF aid scheme to militarise humanitarian assistance, which killed hundreds of aid seekers.
As Trump celebrates his version of peace in the Middle East, rights advocates say there can be no true stability in the region without ending the occupation and ensuring accountability for the genocide in Gaza.
Nancy Okail, head of the Center for International Policy (CIP) think tank, warned that normalising the horrific abuses in Gaza could lead to the collapse of international institutions.
“If there’s no accountability for what happened in Gaza, it’s a licence for others to do similar things, and that weakens and puts everyone in jeopardy,” she told Al Jazeera.
María Corina Machado reacts after winning the primary election in Caracas, Venezuela, on October 23, 2023. On Friday, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for promoting democracy in Venezuela. File Photo by Miguel Gutierrez/EPA-EFE
Oct. 10 (UPI) — María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader who has worked to restore democracy to her country, won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday.
The committee hailed Machado as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times” for her work to promote human rights and attempts to end the dictatorship of President Nicolás Maduro.
“Ms. Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided — an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government,” a news release from the committee said.
“This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy: our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree. At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground.”
As a leader of the Vente Venezuela, a centrist liberal political party, Machado ran for president in 2011 and 2024. The former National Assembly member was the candidate chosen to run against Maduro, representing a variety of opposition groups in the 2024 election.
The Venezuelan government, however, banned her from participating in the election for her earlier activism against the Maduro regime. The ban was instituted for 15 years. The government also accused Machado of planning to assassinate Maduro.
In 2002, Machado was a co-founder of Súmate, an election-monitoring organization that trained volunteers to observe polling locations to ensure all votes were fairly and accurately counted in Venezuelan elections.
“It was a choice of ballots over bullets,” she said of her involvement in the organization.
She later left Súmate to prevent the group from becoming politicized.
“María Corina Machado meets all three criteria stated in Alfred Nobel‘s will for the selection of a Peace Prize laureate,” the Nobel Committee said.
“She has brought her country’s opposition together. She has never wavered in resisting the militarization of Venezuelan society. She has been steadfast in her support for a peaceful transition to democracy.”
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is scheduled to be announced on Friday, October 10, at 11:00 am local time in Oslo, Norway (09:00 GMT).
The announcement comes from the Norwegian Nobel Institute on behalf of the all-Norwegian, five-member Nobel Committee, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and responsible for selecting and presenting the laureates.
Nominations for this year’s award closed on January 31, and the selection process remains shrouded in secrecy.
A brief history of the Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are named after Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), a Swedish chemist, engineer and industrialist best known for inventing dynamite, an explosive that transformed the modern world through advances in construction and mining, but which was also responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in wars.
Motivated by a desire to shape his legacy, Nobel left a multimillion-dollar fortune to fund annual prizes, awarded to those who “have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in the preceding year.
A view of a bust of Alfred Nobel in the Nobel Forum in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 6, 2025 [Tom Little / Reuters]
The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901 for outstanding achievement in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace.
In 1968, Sweden’s central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, established the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, expanding the categories to six.
So far this year, four Nobel Prizes have been announced. After the Peace Prize on October 10, the final award for economics will be revealed on October 13.
Who can be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?
The Nobel Peace Prize is meant to recognise individuals and organisations that have made exceptional efforts to promote peace, resolve conflicts and advance human rights.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has 338 nominees, including 244 individuals and 94 organisations, up from 286 candidates in 2024.
Nominations are kept confidential, and committee members are prohibited from discussing their decisions for 50 years. Only the nominators themselves may choose to disclose their submissions.
While a person cannot nominate themselves, they may be nominated multiple times by others.
This year, United States President Donald Trump has become a focus of Nobel Peace Prize nominations. Trump, who has said, “Everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize,” has received several endorsements: Israel, Cambodia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan, even as many have questioned his credentials.
While many well-known figures have been nominated in the past but never received the Nobel Peace Prize, the names most frequently searched in the Nobel nomination database are Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi and Joseph Stalin.
These individuals represent vastly different legacies: Hitler was nominated in 1939 as a satirical gesture, Gandhi was nominated multiple times between 1937 and 1948 but never awarded, and Stalin was nominated in 1945 and 1948 for his role in ending World War II.
Who has received the Nobel Peace Prize?
As of 2024, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 105 times to 142 laureates – 111 individuals and 31 organisations.
Among the individual recipients, 92 are men and 19 are women.
The youngest laureate to date is Malala Yousafzai, who received the award at the age of 17 in 2014, while the oldest is Joseph Rotblat, honoured at 86 for his work against nuclear weapons.
The International Committee of the Red Cross holds the record for the most Peace Prizes, having been recognised three times, followed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which has won twice.
Geographically, Europe accounts for the largest share of laureates at 45 percent, followed by North America (20 percent), Asia (16 percent), Africa (9 percent) and South America (3 percent).
In addition, United Nations organisations represent about 7 percent of all Nobel Peace Prize recipients.
When was the Peace Prize not awarded?
The Nobel Peace Prize has not been awarded every year.
It was skipped on 19 occasions, specifically in 1914–1916, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1939–1943, 1948, 1955–1956, 1966–1967, and 1972, usually due to war or the absence of a suitable candidate.
According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, if none of the candidates’ work is deemed significant enough, the prize may be withheld and the prize money carried forward to the next year. If it still cannot be awarded, the amount is transferred to the Foundation’s restricted funds.
One notable instance came in 1948, the year Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. Gandhi had been nominated several times – in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and again in 1948 – for his nonviolent leadership of India’s freedom movement. In 1948, the Nobel Committee chose not to award the prize, citing “no suitable living candidate”, widely seen as an implicit tribute to him.
Has anyone refused the award?
The Nobel Peace Prize has only been refused on one occasion.
In 1973, Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were awarded the prize for their efforts to end the Vietnam War.
Tho declined the award, citing the ongoing conflict in Vietnam.
The Vietnam War lasted from the late 1950s to 1975, ending with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, and killed millions of people.
Henry Kissinger, left, President Richard Nixon’s national security adviser, and Le Duc Tho, member of Hanoi’s politburo, are shown outside a suburban house at Gif-sur-Yvette in Paris on June 13, 1973 [Michel Lipchitz/AP Photo]
Has the award ever been shared?
Yes, very often. Out of the 105 awards presented so far:
71 prizes were given to a single laureate,
31 prizes were shared between two laureates, and
3 prizes were shared among three laureates.
According to the Nobel Foundation’s statutes, a prize can be divided equally between two recipients or shared among up to three if their work is considered to merit the award jointly. The prize cannot be divided among more than three people.
Who are all the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize?
The table below lists all Nobel Peace Prize laureates from 1901 to 2024, along with their country of origin.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran is seeking to work on a broader Middle East peace deal after lending its support to his plan to bring a ceasefire to the Gaza Strip, Anadolu reports.
“Iran wants to work on peace now. They’ve informed us, and they’ve acknowledged that they are totally in favor of this deal. They think it’s a great thing, so we appreciate that, and we’ll work with Iran,” Trump said as he prepares to head to the Middle East this weekend.
“As you know, we have major sanctions on Iran and lots of other things. We would like to see them be able to rebuild their country too, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he added.
Trump was alluding to strikes he authorized on Iran’s nuclear program in June, which he and his senior officials have maintained completely destroyed any Iranian nuclear capability.
The US president said during a Fox News interview Wednesday evening that Tehran was “about one month, maybe two months, away from having a nuclear weapon” when he launched the attacks during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel.
Trump earlier announced that Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a 20-point plan he laid out Sept. 29 to bring a ceasefire to Gaza, release all Israeli captives being held there in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, and a gradual withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the entire Gaza Strip.
A second phase of the plan calls for the establishment of a new governing mechanism in Gaza without Hamas’ participation, the formation of a security force comprising Palestinians and troops from Arab and Islamic countries, and the disarmament of Hamas. It also stipulates Arab and Islamic funding for the new administration and the reconstruction of the Strip, with limited participation from the Palestinian Authority.
Arab and Muslim counties have largely welcomed the plan, but some officials have also said that many details in it need discussion and negotiations to be fully implemented.
French President Emmanuel Macron urged full support for the US plan to end the Gaza war, calling for a permanent ceasefire, release of all captives, and humanitarian access. Macron, however, blasted expanding West Bank settlements, which he said threaten Palestinian statehood and regional peace.
A government spokesperson has laid out how Israel will implement the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan in Gaza, saying it will start after today’s Israeli government cabinet meeting.
STAVANGER, Norway — President Trump’s bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize has drawn added attention to the annual guessing game over who its next laureate will be.
Longtime Nobel watchers say Trump’s prospects remain remote despite a flurry of high-profile nominations and some notable foreign policy interventions for which he has taken personal credit.
Experts say the Norwegian Nobel Committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals. Trump’s own record might even work against him, they said, citing his apparent disdain for multilateral institutions and his disregard for global climate change concerns.
Still, the U.S. leader has repeatedly sought the Nobel spotlight since his first term, most recently telling United Nations delegates late last month “everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”
A person cannot nominate themself.
Public lobbying campaigns but a private committee decision
Trump’s boasts and previous high-profile nominations make him the blockbuster name on the list of bookmakers’ favorites. But it’s unclear whether his name comes up in conversation when the five-member Nobel committee, appointed by Norway’s parliament, meets behind closed doors.
Trump has been nominated several times by people within the U.S. as well as politicians abroad since 2018. His name also was put forward in December by U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), her office said in a statement, for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states in 2020.
Nominations made this year from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pakistan’s government occurred after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award.
Trump has said repeatedly that he “deserves” the prize and claims to have “ended seven wars.” Last week, he teased the possibility of ending an eighth war if Israel and Hamas agree to his peace plan aimed at concluding the nearly two-year war in Gaza.
“Nobody’s ever done that,” he told a gathering of military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. “Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing.”
Israel and Hamas have since agreed to the first phase of the peace plan for Gaza, paving the way for a pause in the fighting and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. In the early hours of Thursday, families of hostages and their supporters started chanting “Nobel prize to Trump” as they gathered in Tel Aviv’s hostages square.
Sustained peace efforts prioritized over quick wins
Nobel veterans say the committee prioritizes sustained, multilateral efforts over quick diplomatic wins. Theo Zenou, a historian and research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said Trump’s efforts have not yet been proven to be long-lasting.
“There’s a huge difference between getting fighting to stop in the short term and resolving the root causes of the conflict,” Zenou said.
Zenou also highlighted Trump’s dismissive stance on climate change as out-of-step with what many, including the Nobel committee, see as the planet’s greatest long-term peace challenge.
“I don’t think they would award the most prestigious prize in the world to someone who does not believe in climate change,” Zenou said. “When you look at previous winners who have been bridge-builders, embodied international cooperation and reconciliation: These are not words we associate with Donald Trump.”
Avoiding political pressure
The Nobel committee was met with fierce criticism in 2009 for giving then-U.S. President Barack Obama the prize barely nine months into his first term. Many argued Obama had not been in office long enough to have an impact worthy of the Nobel.
And Trump’s own outspokenness about possibly winning the award might work against him: The committee won’t want to be seen as caving in to political pressure, said Nina Græger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
Trump’s prospects for the prize this year are “a long shot,” she said. “His rhetoric does not point in a peaceful perspective.”
The Nobel announcements began with the prize in medicine on Monday, and continued with physics on Tuesday and chemistry on Wednesday. The literature prize is being awarded on Thursday. The winner of the prize in economics will be announced on Monday.
Lewis writes for the Associated Press. Stefanie Dazio in Berlin and Darlene Superville in Quantico, Va., contributed to this reporting.
US President Donald Trump’s announcement of an agreement which is expected to result in the release of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip for more than two years has caused delight and relief across Israel.
The Hostages Families Forum, an organisation that has advocated for the return of Israeli captives in Gaza, expressed “profound gratitude” to Trump for what it called an “historic breakthrough”.
The deal – which still must be agreed upon by Israel’s war cabinet – will see the release of 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.
So far, 148 hostages have been returned – most as part of previous ceasefire deals – 51 bodies have been recovered and eight hostages have been rescued.
Jubilant scenes have unfolded in Hostages’ Square in Tel Aviv as hundreds of people gathered ahead of the deal being signed.
A crowd began clapping and dancing under US and Israeli flags – one woman holding up a sign saying: “We love Trump.”
“It’s a magical day,” the woman said.
Another, 50-year-old Yael, cried as she watched the crowd dancing.
“I’m very excited – it’s such a relief,” she said. “We need to see them come back home to their families.”
The mother and sister of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker lit fireworks in celebration of the news that he would be returned home.
“They’re coming back!… Matan is coming home!” Einav Zangauker said as she held her daughter.
Viki Cohen, the mother of Israeli hostage Nimrod Cohen, posted on social media: “My child, you are coming home.”
Reuters
The delight was palpable in the streets of Tel Aviv following the announcement
Rotem Cooper’s parents were taken hostage on that fateful day for Israel. His mother was released later that month, but his father was killed in captivity and his body remains in Gaza.
“It’s a mixed bag [of emotions] – the first is of accomplishment. It’s something we’ve been fighting for, through moments of desperation, trying to get a deal, any deal, for the hostages,” he said.
“It’s what we’ve been fighting for, why we’ve been spending countless hours on the streets, at rallies, on this stage, at the Knesset [the Israeli parliament], travelling abroad, talking to world leaders. All of a sudden, we’re here. That’s worth fighting for – it’s about all the hostages. It’s about ending the war.”
The deal, he said, meant he could finally bury his father and mourn.
Former British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari celebrated with another freed hostage Romi Gonen, reciting prayers of gratitude, then toasting “L’chaim”, meaning “to life”. She has been campaigning for the release of her friends, twins Gali and Ziv Berman.
Their brother Liran Berman posted: “My Gali and Ziv, I love you so much. You’re coming home.”
Gil Dickman’s cousin Carmel Gat was taken hostage on 7 October 2023, and her body recovered from a tunnel in Gaza almost a year later. He has been joining other hostage families in pushing for a deal that brings the return of all those still being held in Gaza.
“I can’t quite believe this is actually happening. We’ve been waiting for so long and here it is,” he said.
He said he felt “broken” that Carmel will not be among those returning home but was “glowing with joy for the families of the hostages who are finally coming back”.
Reuters
Eitan Horn was seized from kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel along with his brother
Dalia Cusnir, whose brother-in-law Eitan Horn remains captive in Gaza, said she felt like she was living “in a dream”.
“We’re more than grateful to President Trump and everything he has done for us. We feel like it might be the beginning of the end of this nightmare, and hugging Eitan feels closer than ever,” she said.
But she cautioned that it was still too soon to celebrate.
“Until the last hostage is here, we’re not opening the champagne. We’re going to keep fighting… until the end,” she said.
“So many things can happen until the last moment so this is why we’re being so, so careful. We just want to thank everyone who was involved in the efforts and make sure this agreement is done… We will celebrate only once we have the last hostage back home.”
Eitan was taken from kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel along with his brother Iair, who was released from captivity in a ceasefire deal earlier this year.
1 of 6 | Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, (L-R) Hassine Abassi, Mohamed Fadhel Mahfoudh, Abdessattar Ben Moussa, Ouided Bouchamaoui, attend the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in City Hall in Oslo on December 10, 2015. File Photo by Rune Hellestad/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 9 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1888, 40 years after construction began, the Washington Monument opens to the public. Work on the obelisk was halted from 1854 to 1877 due to a lack of funds, internal squabbling within the Washington National Monument Society, and the American Civil War.
In 1919, the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series defeating the Chicago White Sox. Eight members of the White Sox would be accused of intentionally losing games in exchange for money from gamblers in what would become known as the Black Sox Scandal. The players were later found not guilty, though all were banned from the sport for life.
In 1931, gangster Al Capone’s Florida spending told at tax evasion trial. The government’s contention was that if Mr. Capone was “rich enough to be a moviesque Florida Play-boy, then he certainly must have an income worthy of taxation.”
File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI
In 1931, the Japanese government endorsed military action against Manchuria. The invasion was one of a series of battles and skirmishes which took place in the run-up to the Second Sino-Japanese War.
In 1934, King Alexander of Yugoslavia was assassinated by a Croatian terrorist during a state visit to France.
In 1967, one day after being captured in the jungles of Bolivia where he was waging a guerrilla war, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, a leading figure in the 1959 Cuban revolution, is executed by the Bolivian military.
In 1975, Andrei Sakharov, father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, became the first Soviet citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1983, James Watt, facing U.S. Senate condemnation for a racially insensitive remark, resigned as U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s interior secretary.
In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
In 2012, Malala Yousafzai, an advocate for girls’ education in Pakistan and future Nobel Peace Prize winner, survived being shot three times as she attempted to board a bus to school.
In 2015, the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet won the Nobel Peace Prize for its role in building up democracy in Tunisia after the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.
In 2020, the United Nations’ World Food Program won the Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to fight hunger and bring peace to parts of the world affected by violence.
In 2024, Hurricane Milton made landfall near Sarasota, Fla., knocking out power for nearly 3 million people. The storm led to dozens of deaths and caused nearly $35 million in damage.
“There is a sense of happiness” in Gaza, says BBC correspondent
US President Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a Gaza peace deal.
It comes two years and two days after Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.
At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, the Hamas-run health ministry says.
Here is what we know about the agreement, and what remains unclear:
What has been announced?
After intense negotiations in Egypt, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a first phase of a US peace plan, the US president said.
Announcing the deal on social media, Trump said: “This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line.”
“All parties” would be treated fairly, said Trump, who called these the “first steps toward… everlasting peace”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “a great day for Israel” and said his government would meet on Thursday to approve the agreement and “bring all our dear hostages home”.
In confirming the announcement, Hamas said it would “end the war in Gaza, ensure the complete withdrawal of the occupation forces, allow the entry of humanitarian aid, and implement a prisoner exchange”.
Israel and Hamas do not speak directly to each other – the negotiations were brokered by Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey.
Watch: Trump says Middle East deal ‘very close’ after being passed note by Marco Rubio
What happens next?
Israel’s government is due to vote on the deal on Thursday.
If they formally approve it, Israel must withdraw its troops from Gaza to the agreed line, a senior White House official told BBC’s US partner, CBS News. The withdrawal would likely happen within 24 hours, the official said.
After this happens, a 72-hour clock will begin where Hamas must release the living hostages.
The release of the hostages would likely begin on Monday, the senior White House official said.
What do we not know?
What’s been announced so far is just the initial phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which Israel has accepted and Hamas has partly agreed to.
However the announcements did not cover some thorny issues both sides have not reached a resolution on.
Notably, no details surround the disarmament of Hamas – a key point in Trump’s plan. Hamas has previously refused to lay down its weapons, saying it would only do so when a Palestinian state had been established.
The future governance of Gaza is also a sticking point. Trump’s 20-point plan states Hamas will have no future role in the Strip and proposes it be temporarily governed by a “technocratic, apolitical Palestinian committee”, before being handed over to the Palestinian Authority.
Netanyahu appeared to push back on the Palestinian Authority’s involvement last week, even as he accepted Trump’s plan.
Ultranationalist hardliners within Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, many of whom want to reconstruct Jewish settlements in Gaza, are also likely to object to this point.
Hamas, in response, said it still expected to have some role in governing Gaza.
In addition, as of Wednesday night, Hamas had not yet received the final list of Palestinian prisoners that Israel plans to release in exchange for the hostages in Gaza, a Palestinian source told the BBC.
The 20-point plan states that 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1,700 Gazans who were detained after 7 October 2023 will be released.
What’s been the reaction?
Reuters
Einav Zangauker, the mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, reacts after Trump’s announcement
Relatives of Israeli hostages have welcomed the deal.
Eli Sharabi, whose wife and children were killed, and whose brother Yossi’s body is being held by Hamas, posted: “Great joy, can’t wait to see everyone home.”
The mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen posted: “My child, you are coming home.”
Meanwhile in Gaza, celebrations broke out after the announcement. “Thank God for the ceasefire, the end of bloodshed and killing,” Abdul Majeed abd Rabbo, a man in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, was quoted as saying by Reuters.
“I am not the only one happy, all of the Gaza Strip is happy, all the Arab people, all of the world is happy with the ceasefire and the end of bloodshed.”
Reuters
Palestinians celebrate after the announcement
World leaders have urged parties to abide by the deal.
“The suffering must end,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said, adding that the UN would support the “full implementation” of the deal, as well as increase its delivery of aid and its reconstruction efforts in Gaza.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the news, saying: “This is a moment of profound relief that will be felt all around the world, but particularly for the hostages, their families, and for the civilian population of Gaza, who have all endured unimaginable suffering over the last two years.”
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the agreement a “much needed step towards peace” and urged parties to “respect the terms of the plan”.
Lawmakers in the US have struck a cautiously optimistic tone.
“This is a first step, and all parties need to ensure this leads to an enduring end to this war,” Democrat Senator Chris Coons said in an X post.
Republican James Risch, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called it a welcome deal and said he “looks forward to learning [its] details”.
With reporting by Rushdi Abualouf and Lucy Manning
Oct. 8 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that a peace deal and hostage/prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas is “very close,” and he might travel to the Middle East this weekend.
Earlier in the day, Trump’s lead negotiators, special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, finished their first day of talks in Egypt with Israel, Hamas and other Arab partners, including Qatar, which has been a mediator.
Israel’s chief negotiator is Ron Dermer, who didn’t arrive at talks until Wednesday.
They are seeking to end the war that began in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, after the militant Hamas attacked Israel.
“Our final negotiation, as you know, is with Hamas. And it seems to be going well,” Trump said during a White House roundtable on Antifa, during which he was handed a note by Secretary of State Marco Rubio with the latest information. “I may go there sometime toward the end of the week. We’ll see, but there’s a very good chance that negotiations are going along very well.’
Trump said he might leave for the Middle East as early as Saturday from Washington, D.C.
“We haven’t decided exactly,” Trump said. “I’ll be going to Egypt. Most likely. That’s where everybody is gathered right now, and we appreciate that very much, but I’ll be making the rounds as the expression goes.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi invited Trump to attend the signing ceremony.
Final details were still being worked out in the Red Sea town of Sharm El-Sheikh.
“With God’s help, may we have a happy holiday with good news,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told those gathered to mark the Day of Georgian Jewry in Israel.
Hamas would disarm and end control of Gaza. The area, which at one time had about 2.2 million Palestinians, would be governed temporarily by international trustees overseen by the U.S. and Arab allies. Hundreds of thousands have fled from the Gaza Strip and more than 67,000 have died, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Hamas has opposed the oversight committee led by Trump, called a “Board of Peace.”
On Monday, Trump said Hamas has “agreed to very important things” during the negotiations.
The plan calls for an exchange of hostages by Hamas and prisoners by Israel within 72 hours of an agreement.
In Gaza, Israel believes there are 20 live hostages and 28 dead.
“We are very close to an agreement. What’s still pending is the list of prisoners [to be] exchanged,” a Hamas official told CNN.
Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, has been in touch with the negotiators.
“We’re getting very positive reports, as of an hour ago,” Rubio said as he left the Senate Republican lunch at the Capitol. “I feel optimistic that we’re going to get to a deal, hopefully, that hostages will be released — all the hostages. There’s good progress being made. But it all begins with all the hostages coming home. And I think we have to be optimistic, but there’s still some work to be done.”
With a deal near, Rubio canceled a trip to France to meet with other foreign ministers.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is becoming “more and more catastrophic,” the emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in the area told CNN’s Lynda Kinkade.
Donald Trump says a Middle East peace deal is “very close,” pledging US security guarantees for Gaza two years after the war began. American envoys are heading to Egypt for what officials describe as the most promising talks yet to end the devastating conflict.
Sources familiar with the mediated talks between Israel and Hamas say that progress was made on Monday, with negotiations to continue.
The first day of resumed indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Egypt ended on a positive note, amid hopes of a potential deal to implement US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war on Gaza, multiple sources told Al Jazeera and other media outlets.
Negotiators are set to return for more discussions on Tuesday.
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Sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that the meeting in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday was “positive” and that a roadmap was drawn up for how the current round of talks would continue.
The Hamas delegation told mediators that Israel’s continued bombing of Gaza poses a challenge to negotiations on the release of captives, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
The Hamas delegation included Hamas leaders Khalil al-Hayya and Zaher Jabarin, two negotiators who survived an Israeli assassination attempt in central Doha that killed five people last month.
Talks on day one covered the proposed exchange of prisoners and captives, a ceasefire, and humanitarian aid entering Gaza, according to Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera News.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also said Trump was pushing for an early exchange of Israeli captives and Palestinian prisoners, in a bid to build “momentum” to implement other parts of his plan to end the Gaza war.
“The technical teams are discussing that as we speak, to ensure that the environment is perfect to release those hostages,” Leavitt said, adding that teams were “going over the list of both the Israeli hostages and also the political prisoners who will be released.”
Trump, speaking to reporters from the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, said that “we have a really good chance of making a deal”, while also noting that he still has his own “red lines”.
“But I think we’re doing very well. And I think Hamas has been agreeing to things that are very important”, Trump added.
Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan reporting from Washington, DC, said that Trump had not “not given any details of how he thinks the discussions are going beyond his general positive assessment.”
“The US President also was very complimentary of the joint Arab-Turkish support to keep Hamas at the bargaining table, he was complimentary of the Israeli people and of course, he was complimentary about his own special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who was leading the US delegation in these negotiations,” said Jordan.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a real estate developer, is also reportedly part of the US delegation.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera News, meanwhile, confirmed that the talks were expected to continue on Tuesday, which marks two years since the Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,139 people and saw about 200 people taken captive.
And even as the talks were held on Monday, Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians in attacks across Gaza, including three who were seeking humanitarian aid, according to Al Jazeera sources.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres shared a social media post late on Monday, New York time, acknowledging the two year anniversary of Hamas’s “abhorrent large-scale terror attack on Israel”, on October 7, 2023.
Guterres also said that the “recent proposal” put forward by Trump “presents an opportunity that must be seized to bring this tragic conflict to an end.”
“A permanent ceasefire and a credible political process are essential to prevent further bloodshed and pave the way for peace,” the UN chief wrote.
Herut Nimrodi says she is clinging to hope that her son Tamir is “still hanging on” two years after his abduction
The mother of an Israeli man taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023 says she still does not know if her son is dead or alive, but has “real hope” that US President Donald Trump’s peace plan will bring the return of all the hostages held in Gaza.
Herut Nimrodi told BBC News she was “fearing the worst” for her son Tamir, a non-combat soldier, but she was clinging to hope that “he’s still hanging on” two years after his abduction.
She said he was the only Israeli hostage whose family had not been told if they were alive or dead.
The peace plan proposed by Trump has been gaining momentum, with indirect talks expected to continue on Tuesday between Hamas and Israel to end the war and return the hostages.
“They have been trying to create an agreement for a while but it didn’t take off. This time it feels different,” Ms Nimrodi said. “There is real hope that this is the one, this is the last deal.”
She said it was particularly important that all hostages – living and dead – would be released in the plan’s first phase.
“This is huge, this is a blessing for us,” she said.
“It’s urgent to release the hostages – those that are still alive, and even the ones that have passed. We don’t know what state their bodies are in. We have to release them so the families have some kind of closure. Even the families that got the message that their loved ones are deceased, they don’t accept it because they need proof.”
Tamir Nimrodi pictured with his mother and other family members
The last time she saw her son was in a video of his abduction posted on social media on 7 October 2023.
“My youngest daughter – she was 14 at the time – came screaming that she had seen her brother being abducted on Instagram,” she recalled.
“I saw Tamir wearing his pyjamas. He was barefoot. He had no glasses on. He can hardly see without them. He was terrified.”
Since seeing her son – an education officer in the Israeli military who was 18 at the time – forced into a jeep and driven away, “fading away into Gaza”, she has received no signs of life.
“He’s the only Israeli with no indication about what happened or where exactly he is,” she said.
The fate of a Nepalese hostage, Bipin Joshi, is also unknown.
Like other families the BBC has spoken to whose relatives were killed or kidnapped that day, Ms Nimrodi said life had been frozen for two years.
“People ask me: ‘It’s been two years, how are you holding on?’ And I say, ‘It doesn’t feel like two years. It feels like one long exhausting day’,” she said.
That day two years ago was the deadliest in Israel’s history, when some 1,200 people were killed by armed men from Hamas and other groups, and 251 others taken hostage, most from southern communities and a music festival.
The attacks sparked a war in which more than 67,000 people in Gaza have been killed by Israeli military action, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. Almost the entire population has been displaced and much of its infrastructure flattened.
Family handout
Ms Nimrodi says Tamir messaged her about “non-stop” rockets on the morning of 7 October
Ms Nimrodi said she was at her home near Tel Aviv when she received a message from Tamir early on 7 October 2023 from his post at the northern side of the Gaza border.
“He said ‘there are rockets and it’s non-stop’,” she recalled.
Tamir told her he would return soon to the family home, as he usually would during such moments because of his non-combat role.
“I told him to take good care of himself and text me whenever he can and he said he would try. Those were the last words between us. It was 06:49 in the morning, and I found out later on that 20 minutes after our last message he was taken away,” she said.
She has been lobbying for her son’s return, including at rallies with other hostage families.
But she said there were also days when she “can’t get out of bed”.
“I try to listen to my body – what can I do? How much strength do I have?”
The momentum behind the peace plan has brought some hope for the remaining hostage families that their loved ones could soon be returned home.
Ms Nimrodi joined tens of thousands of people – including the families of hostages, and former hostages themselves – who had gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to call for the deal to be implemented.
She wore a T-shirt with her son’s photo on the front, smiling and bespectacled.
“I believe in this deal, and I believe that Trump will not let this slip away,” she said, as she called on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “do the right thing – bring the hostages home and bring peace to this region”.
She said that when she tried to sleep that night, she would be met with the “terrified look” in her son’s eyes as he was abducted, which plays in her head every day.
“To hope for two years – it’s absolutely exhausting.”
Delegations from Hamas, Israel and the United States are due to convene in Egypt for talks on US President Donald Trump’s proposal to end the war in Gaza.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the 20-point plan are due to begin in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday.
The talks, which come on the eve of the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel that led to the war, have raised hopes that the devastating conflict, which has killed tens of thousands in Gaza, could soon end. But at the same time, there are plenty of potential obstacles to sealing a deal.
Trump has insisted that both sides are on board with his peace framework and has called for the negotiations to “move fast” in reaching an agreement.
Despite the failure of several initiatives to try to end the conflict, including two brief ceasefires that collapsed, the bombardment of Gaza, which has now killed at least 67,160 people, wounded 169,679, and pushed the enclave’s two million or so people towards starvation, Trump said “the first phase should be completed this week”.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said there had been “very positive discussions with Hamas” and other governments over the weekend “to release the Hostages, end the War in Gaza but, more importantly, finally have long sought peace in the Middle East”.
“These talks have been very successful, and proceeding rapidly,” he said. “I am asking everyone to move fast … time is of the essence, or massive bloodshed will follow.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also appeared to buoy expectations when he said the release of the 48 Israeli captives held by Hamas – 20 of whom are believed to be alive – could be announced this week.
Under the plan, Hamas would release the captives in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Hamas has also agreed to give up power in Gaza, while Israel has agreed to withdraw its forces from the enclave.
Lacking details
However, numerous issues remain under the proposal, which lacks details.
There is no timescale given for the disarmament of Hamas, while a vague reference to the establishment of a Palestinian state has put many on both sides of the deal on edge.
Meanwhile, with the talks set to commence, Israeli forces have continued their assault in Gaza.
Seven people were killed on Monday morning, including three who were seeking humanitarian aid, according to Al Jazeera sources.
Nour Odeh, reporting for Al Jazeera from the Jordanian capital, Amman, said that, for all Trump’s comments talking up the prospects of the plan, significant obstacles remained.
“There are a lot of details that could potentially derail” the negotiations, she said.
Potential sticking points include Israel’s insistence that it wants all captives released at the same time within 72 hours.
It also wants to retain freedom to pursue Hamas, despite the withdrawal agreement, and insists that its withdrawal lines and timelines have already been set.
“All of these things need to undergo delicate talks,” she said.
Perhaps reflecting such doubts, the Israeli media reported on Monday that the negotiation process would now begin with Hamas representatives speaking with mediators, with Israeli and US representatives not participating until Wednesday.
Trump has demanded that Israel stop bombing Gaza so that the talks can play out, but strikes have continued across the territory.
Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters on Sunday that the military would continue to act for “defensive purposes” and that there was no ceasefire in place.
Speaking on ABC’s This Week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described two phases that would occur once Hamas accepted Trump’s framework.
First, the Israeli captives would be released by Hamas, and then Israel would pull back in Gaza to the “yellow line”, where its military was positioned in August.
Rubio said Hamas should release captives as soon as they were ready, and that Israel’s bombardment needed to end so they could be released.
Hamas’s future a sticking point
The question of Hamas’s future also looms as a major potential obstacle.
Trump’s plan calls for Gaza’s demilitarisation and rules out any future governing role for Hamas, though it allows its members to remain if they renounce violence and disarm.
Hamas has responded positively to the plan, saying it was ready to negotiate the captives’ release, and form part of a “Palestinian national framework” that would shape Gaza’s future.
However, the prospect of Hamas remaining in any form has enraged Netanyahu’s far-right coalition allies. They have threatened to topple the government over the issue.
“Alongside the important goal in and of itself of releasing the hostages, the central goal of the war, which stems from the October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas monsters, is that the terrorist organisation Hamas cannot be allowed to remain in existence,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a social media post.
He said he and his party, Otzma Yehudit, had told Netanyahu that they would quit the government if Hamas continued to exist after the captives’ release.
“We will not be part of a national defeat that will bring eternal shame to the world, and that will become a ticking time bomb for the next massacre,” he said.
However, Yair Lapid, leader of the opposition, on Sunday offered to lend Netanyahu’s government support to prevent a collapse at the hands of his “extremist and irresponsible partners” while the plan is negotiated.
