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Trump Says Peace Achieved as Israeli Hostages Swapped for Palestinian Detainees

Red Cross vehicles transport hostages, held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, following their handover as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Red Cross vehicles transport hostages, held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, following their handover as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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Trump Says Peace Achieved as Israeli Hostages Swapped for Palestinian Detainees

Red Cross vehicles transport hostages, held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, following their handover as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Red Cross vehicles transport hostages, held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack, following their handover as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas freed the last living Israeli hostages from Gaza on Monday under a ceasefire deal and Israel sent home busloads of Palestinian detainees, as US President Donald Trump told Israel's parliament that peace had arrived. 

The Israeli military said it had received all hostages confirmed to be alive, after their transfer from Gaza by the Red Cross. The announcement prompted cheering, hugging and weeping among thousands waiting at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv. 

In Gaza, thousands of relatives, many weeping with joy, gathered at a hospital where buses brought home some of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees freed by Israel as part of the accord. 

"The skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still and the sun rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace," Trump told the Knesset, Israel's parliament, saying a "long nightmare" for both Israelis and Palestinians was over. 

"Now it is time to translate these victories against terrorists on the battlefield into the ultimate prize of peace and prosperity for the entire Middle East," he said before departing for a summit in Egypt intended to cement the truce. 

He arrived in the Egyptian beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh about an hour before sundown for the summit of more than 20 world leaders, which Trump will chair alongside President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. 

FORMIDABLE OBSTACLES REMAIN 

The release of the last living hostages captured in the October 2023 attacks, which killed 1,200 Israelis and precipitated the war, in return for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees follows a ceasefire and partial Israeli withdrawal. 

Thousands of Palestinians have been able to return to the ruins of homes they fled in the Gaza Strip, where health authorities say 68,000 people were killed in fighting that displaced nearly the entire 2.2 million-strong population. 

However, formidable obstacles remain, even to securing an enduring ceasefire, much less to bringing a wider, more durable peace. Among the immediate issues still to be resolved: recovering the remains of another 26 hostages believed to have died and two whose fates are unknown. 

Hamas says recovering the bodies could take time as not all burial sites are known. It said on Monday it would soon hand over four bodies. Israel's defense minister said handing over so few would be a "gross violation" of the group's commitments. 

Aid supplies are meant to flow more smoothly into the enclave under Trump's plan. UN aid chief Tom Fletcher underlined the need to "get shelter and fuel to people who desperately need it and to massively scale up the food and medicine and other supplies going in." 

Beyond that, crucial issues have yet to be resolved, including how to govern and police Gaza, and the ultimate future of Hamas, which still rejects Israel's demands to disarm. 

Hamas gunmen, seeking to assert their presence, launched a security crackdown in Gaza City after Israel's pullback, killing 32 members of a rival group, a Palestinian security source said. 

The Gaza War has also reshaped the Middle East through spillover conflicts, with Israel imposing punishing damage in a 12-day war against Iran and campaigns against its regional allies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis. 

Trump, who has presented his plan as the catalyst for a wide regional peace settlement, even floated the idea of a peace deal between arch Middle East enemies Iran and Israel to the Knesset, saying he thought Iran wanted one: "Wouldn't it be nice?" 

JOY, RELIEF ON BOTH SIDES 

Beaming with relief and joy, two hostages waved to cheering crowds from vans on the way to an Israeli hospital, one hoisting a large Israeli flag then forming a heart with his hands. 

Video footage captured emotional scenes of families receiving phone messages from their loved ones as they were being released, their faces lighting up with disbelief and hope after months of anguish. 

"I am so excited. I am full of happiness. It's hard to imagine how I feel this moment. I didn't sleep all night," said Viki Cohen, mother of hostage Nimrod Cohen, as she travelled to Reim, an Israeli military camp where hostages were being transferred. 

Palestinians meanwhile rushed to embrace prisoners freed by Israel. Several thousand gathered inside and around Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, some waving Palestinian flags, others holding photos of their relatives. 

"I am happy for our sons who are being freed, but we are still in pain for all those who have been killed by the occupation, and all the destruction that happened to our Gaza," a Gaza woman, Um Ahmed, told Reuters in a tearful voice message. 

Freed prisoners arrived in buses, some of them posing from the windows, flashing V-for-Victory signs. The appearance of armed masked Hamas fighters at the scene underscored the difficulty of resolving Israel's demand that they disarm. 

Israel was due to release 1,700 detainees it captured in Gaza, as well as 250 prisoners from its jails convicted or suspected of security offences, including attacks on Israelis. 

Samer Halabeya, a doctor freed from jail where he was serving a sentence for planning an attack that wounded an Israeli officer, stood by his weeping mother in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. 

The prisoners had only learned they would be released long after the agreement had been signed, he said: "We hope that everyone gets freed." 

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Arab World

Sadr Hands over Saraya al-Salam to Iraqi Govt as PMF to Be ‘Restructured’

Members of Saraya al-Salam react during a ceremony in the city of Samarra on June 4, 2026, marking their separation from the Sadrist movement and their integration into the Iraqi security forces. (AP)
Members of Saraya al-Salam react during a ceremony in the city of Samarra on June 4, 2026, marking their separation from the Sadrist movement and their integration into the Iraqi security forces. (AP)
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Sadr Hands over Saraya al-Salam to Iraqi Govt as PMF to Be ‘Restructured’

Members of Saraya al-Salam react during a ceremony in the city of Samarra on June 4, 2026, marking their separation from the Sadrist movement and their integration into the Iraqi security forces. (AP)
Members of Saraya al-Salam react during a ceremony in the city of Samarra on June 4, 2026, marking their separation from the Sadrist movement and their integration into the Iraqi security forces. (AP)

The armed wing of influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement handed over on Thursday its security responsibilities to the Iraqi army in Samarra city.

The Saraya al-Salam are part of the pro-Iran Popular Mobilization Forces and hold security responsibilities in several regions, notably Samarra.

Sadr had announced on May 27 that he was merging the Saraya al-Salam with the state, calling on other PMF factions to follow suit.

Within a week, the Imam Ali Brigades and Asaib Ahl al-Haq factions said they were disengaging with the PMF. Other staunchly pro-Iran factions, the Kataib Hezbollah and Nujaba movement, have refused to disarm and dismantle their armed wings.

Head of Iraq's Security Media Cell Lieutenant General Saad Maan said all Saraya al-Salam fighters are now working under the orders of the prime minister, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

State media aired footage of the Saraya al-Salam members lowering their faction’s flag at their operations command center at a ceremony attended by a military delegation dispatched by PM Ali al-Zaidi.

Washington has long wanted to curtail Iran's influence in Iraq, but the start of its war with Tehran on February 28 has given it new momentum.

Iran-backed groups in Iraq have launched numerous strikes against US installations in Iraq since the start of the Middle East war at the end of February.

The strikes have been blamed on pro-Iran groups, against whom the US has retaliated, killing dozens of their fighters.

Qais al-Muhammadawi, Deputy Commander of Iraq's Joint Operations Command, speaks during a ceremony marking the start of the process of the Saraya al-Salam handing over its weapons to Iraqi state forces in Samarra, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, June 4, 2026. (AP)

Washington has in turn put pressure on Baghdad to rein in the groups by suspending security assistance and cash transfers of Iraqi oil revenues.

Qais al-Muhammadawi, Deputy Commander of Iraq's Joint Operations Command, told a press conference that the Saraya al-Salam will now be merged with the armed forces.

The faction has been deployed in Samarra since the 2007 al-Askari shrine bombing. It remains to be seen whether they will quit the city for the first time in 19 years.

A military source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the group handed over all of its headquarters to the army and its fighters are now at the command of the armed forces.

Despite these developments, the details of the dismantling of the groups and their disarmament remain vague, said observers. Questions remain over the size of their arsenal and whether they will really turn them over to the government and completely abandon them.

An Iraqi security official said the mechanism for disarmament remains “unclear”, reported AFP.

Local media said an initiative has been proposed for discussion before the ruling pro-Iran Coordination Framework. It includes securing tens of thousands of government jobs in official security institutions for members of the dismantled armed factions.

Members of Saraya al-Salam gather during a ceremony in the city of Samarra on June 4, 2026, marking their separation from the Sadrist movement and their integration into the Iraqi security forces. (AFP)

PMF ‘structuring’

Meanwhile, spokesperson for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Sabah al-Numan announced that the committee tasked with imposing state monopoly over arms has kicked off its operations.

He said that “faction disengagement from the PMF calls for the restructuring of formations and ensuring the rights of members.”

This was the first time that the issue of structuring of the formations has been brought up since the PMF’s establishment in 2014. The group was initially set up to fight the ISIS extremist group.

Numan explained that “disengagement” entails “administrative frameworks and the restructuring of these formations within the security agencies, guaranteeing the rights of fighters and merging them with military formations.”

The committee will set up mechanisms for merges and the handover of weapons and military equipment to the official security agencies, he added.

The committee is comprised of officials from the defense and interior ministries, Joint Operations Command and PMF.

What’s next?

Qais al-Khazali's Asaib Ahl al-Haq is expected to follow in Sadr’s footsteps and handover its weapons.

The group, which the US designates a terrorist organization, also forms an important parliamentary bloc with 27 seats. Having refocused on politics, it has distanced itself from Iran and has not taken part in the current war.

A source close to the group said “being part of the government is more important that fighting. So we want to offer the US reassurances.”

The Imam Ali Brigades said it will form a committee to follow up on the disarmament and handover of weapons under the PM’s supervision.

The group has effectively put its administrative control in Zaidi’s hands, said a source close to the factions.

Washington's special envoy for Iraq and Syria, Tom Barrack, has called the disarmament efforts a "significant step forward, which represents the nascent foundation for a renewed Iraqi self-governance". He welcomed the "principled decision" of those groups that are choosing to integrate.

Arab World

OPCW Analyzing 34 Sealed Boxes of Documents Handed Over from Syria

Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu (File photo)
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu (File photo)
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OPCW Analyzing 34 Sealed Boxes of Documents Handed Over from Syria

Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu (File photo)
Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu (File photo)

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said the Syrian authorities handed over to the Secretariat team in Damascus 34 sealed cardboard boxes of documents that are being processed and further analyzed.

Briefing the UN Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 2118 on the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons program, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu welcomed on Thursday the Syrian government’s continued cooperation with OPCW, which has led to significant progress.

In early May, a team from the Organization went to Syria.

Nakamitsu stressed that the Syrian government has done courageous work to facilitate the OPCW’s work, and “we commend its continued cooperation.”

She said, the team is now ready to report that a “significant amount” of undeclared chemical weapons, related materials, and documentation – including evidence of previously undeclared chemical munitions –were already discovered.

Rockets were also found, of the same type as those that were used in the chemical weapons attack in the Syrian city of Ghouta in August 2013.

“These findings are a momentous discovery – not just for Syria, but for international security and the global disarmament regime,” Nakamitsu said, attributing their discovery to the OPCW’s unflagging efforts, the new Syrian government’s compliance with international law and the Council’s continued advocacy.

“This cooperation will remain critical going forward, as the newly discovered elements now need to be declared and destroyed, under the OPCW Technical Secretariat’s verification,” she said.

For her part, Deputy US Representative to the UN, Ambassador Tammy Bruce, welcomed the return of OPCW teams to Syria and the significant progress made by the Syrian government and the OPCW, including the discovery of previously undeclared chemical materials.

Bruce said affirmed that Syria has showed flexibility and determination to close this file and turn the page on the past, and we call for continued assistance in this step.

Several Council members also praised the progress.

Jennifer MacNaughtan, UK Minister Counsellor at the Security Council said Syria’s significant operational support to the Organization’s deployment in early May allowed access to priority sites, enabling the identification of dozens of chemical munitions such as aerial bombs and rockets.

She said the Assad regime claimed repeatedly that it had no active chemical weapons program after 2014, while this discovery demonstrates unequivocally that this claim was false.

Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ibrahim Olabi said the achievements of the Syrian teams constituted a decisive turning point in the efforts to uncover the Assad’s chemical weapons program and a major step forward in the path to accountability, thus providing an invaluable service to the region and the world by addressing the risks of proliferation and enhancing its security and stability.

While that work is critical and praiseworthy, Olabi nevertheless said the recent progress is bittersweet as it brings back terrible memories of the previous government. “Syria suffered from chemical weapons for more than 12 years,” he said, adding: “Today, it is committed to rid itself of its legacy.”

Also, China’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN affirmed that the chemical weapons file in Syria must be closed in order to direct resources towards reconstruction and development.

France’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Jerome Bonnafont, said that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons against its own people in at least nine confirmed cases, and hoped that the remaining chemical stockpiles will be secured and destroyed as quickly as possible.

“We welcome the Syrian government’s cooperation with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and this cooperation opens a new chapter in the country’s history,” Bonnafont added.

Greece’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ioannis Ghikas, said that his country reiterates its full support for the sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Syria. The Syrian people deserve to turn the page on chemical weapons in their modern history, he added.

In a separate development, Syria's permanent delegation to the UN participated on Wednesday in the election of five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for the 2027–2028 term.

“We extend our warm congratulations to Kyrgyzstan, Austria, Portugal, Zimbabwe and Trinidad and Tobago on their election,” the delegation said in a post on its X account.

“We look forward to working with you in the coming period in support of international peace and security and in furtherance of multilateral cooperation,” it added.

Arab World

Hezbollah Rejects Latest Ceasefire Agreement as Israeli Strikes Kill 4 in Lebanon

A photograph taken from the southern area of Nabatieh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Kfar Tibnit on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern area of Nabatieh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Kfar Tibnit on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)
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Hezbollah Rejects Latest Ceasefire Agreement as Israeli Strikes Kill 4 in Lebanon

A photograph taken from the southern area of Nabatieh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Kfar Tibnit on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern area of Nabatieh shows smoke rising from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the village of Kfar Tibnit on June 4, 2026. (Photo by Abbas Fakih / AFP)

Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Lebanese government, and the militant group demanded a complete Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as more fighting there hampered efforts to end the Iran war.

The Hezbollah announcement came as Israeli strikes killed at least four people, according to local authorities, and a UN peacekeeper was killed in the crossfire. An Israeli soldier was also killed in combat in southern Lebanon, The Associated Press said.

Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem, in a written statement read on TV, called the negotiations “absurd, humiliating and insulting.” He said the agreement’s demand that Hezbollah fighters leave southern Lebanon under fire would mean “surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy’s goals.”

“What we are concerned about is an end to the aggression, ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal,” he said, underscoring that Hezbollah has not made any commitment to stop fighting. “So long as our villages are not safe and are being bombed and destroyed and our people are killed," he said, northern Israel “will not be safe.”

Sirens sound after Netanyahu visit

Following Kassem’s statement, drone alert sirens sounded in several border communities in northern Israel, including Shlomi, a town where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several ministers had been meeting with local officials, his office said. Israeli media reported that Netanyahu left a short time before the alerts sounded.

The Israeli military later said the sirens were triggered by attempts to intercept several drones that hit near soldiers in southern Lebanon. No injuries were reported.

Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, acknowledged Thursday that the ongoing war was straining northern Israeli towns living under the threat of Hezbollah fire. He said Israel’s operations in Iran and Lebanon had “created a new security reality,” by weakening Iran and Hezbollah “to an unprecedented degree.”

Lebanese troops began moving Thursday afternoon into the southern village of Dibbine, in coordination with UN peacekeepers, after Israeli forces left the area, which saw intense clashes in recent days, state-run media reported. It was the first time Israeli troops withdrew from an area in southern Lebanon since the latest Israel-Hezbollah war began about three months ago.

The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas. Its closure has jolted the world economy.

Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.

US President Donald Trump, who faced a rare rebuke from Congress on Wednesday, has sought to downplay the diplomatic deadlock and the failure of declared ceasefires to end the fighting. He told reporters that in the Middle East, "a ceasefire is when you’re shooting in a more moderate manner.”

Serbian peacekeeper and Israeli soldier killed

A Serbian peacekeeper was killed and two others were wounded when a mortar struck their location near Marjayoun, a Christian-majority town that has seen intense fighting, according to the UN mission in southern Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, and the Serbian Defense Ministry.

Israel blamed Hezbollah for the firing that killed the UN peacekeeper, without offering evidence. Hezbollah and the UN did not immediately comment on who launched the shells.

Also Thursday, the Israeli military announced that a 21-year-old captain in the armored corps was killed in southern Lebanon.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said a drone strike killed a motorcyclist and wounded four people in the village of Maaroub. The Israeli military said soldiers killed an armed militant and later found a Hezbollah cache of guns, grenades, surface-to-air missiles and other combat gear in the area.

The military also said it conducted strikes near the coastal city of Tyre and around Shaqra, another community in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese news agency reported airstrikes in the south and said a strike on the village of Sohmor in the Bekaa Valley, in eastern Lebanon, killed three people and wounded others.

Israel has warned people not to go into parts of southern Lebanon where it says it is striking Hezbollah facilities.

Fighting has raged despite declared ceasefires

Hezbollah resumed rocket fire days after Israel and the United States launched their surprise Feb. 28 attack on Iran, which backs Hezbollah. Before then, Israel had regularly carried out strikes in Lebanon against what it said were militant targets, often killing civilians, despite an earlier truce reached in 2024.

After Hezbollah's rocket and drone attacks resumed, Israeli troops seized around a fifth of Lebanon, pushing further into the country's south than at any time since the end of Israel’s 1982-2000 occupation.

In the southern city of Sidon, residents reacted to Wednesday's ceasefire announcement with skepticism, saying previous agreements had failed to stop the violence.

“Every few days a ceasefire is announced, but people keep getting killed,” said Mayada Hijazi.

“It’s all talk and no action,” said Salah Nassab. “We keep going back to our homes, and then we get displaced again, back and forth. We’re very tired."

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, and over 1.2 million have been displaced. The fighting has killed at least 28 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.

Latest ceasefire came from ongoing Israeli-Lebanese talks

The latest declared ceasefire came about through US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon's government, which accuses Hezbollah of dragging the country into war and had made efforts to disarm it before the latest hostilities.

The ceasefire agreement calls for Lebanon's armed forces to take control of security zones in Lebanon from which the militants would be banned.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Thursday called the new agreement "the last chance to enter a final and comprehensive ceasefire.” He said Lebanon was ready to implement the deal once he receives responses from relevant factions in Lebanon, including Hezbollah. The United States — and Trump himself — would determine how and when the deal is implemented, Aoun told journalists.

The agreement terms Hezbollah “an enemy" of Israel, the US and Lebanon and calls for dismantling it. The government has promised to do so in the past but does not have the capabilities to disarm Hezbollah by force.

The latest agreement did not say when Israel would withdraw from southern Lebanon but said the US would support the Lebanese army as it works to assert control in areas where Hezbollah has long wielded power.