Republican lawmakers lined up to praise Donald Trump American Palestinians were more cautious on Wednesday over the conclusion of a preliminary deal on a “phase one” agreement between Israel and Hamas to end fighting in Gaza and release the remaining Israeli hostages.
“President Trump is the president of the world! Finally, the living nightmare that the hostages were forced to endure will end, and Americans Itay and Omer can be buried,” – Joni Ernst, Senator from Iowa wrote on social networks, referring to the Israeli hostages who died in captivity. The preliminary agreement will ensure the return of living Israeli hostages and the remains of those killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2021.
Bernie Moreno, Ohio senator who represented resolution in June called for Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for bombing nuclear facilities in Iran, said the announcement made it a “historic” day “for the United States, Israel and peace in the Middle East.”
“President Trump has once again fulfilled his promise to achieve peace by force. An incredible feat that will go down in history. NOBEL PEACE PRIZE!” Moreno added.
Brian Mast, a Florida representative who once served as a civilian volunteer in the Israeli army and wore his old Israeli uniform to work after the Oct. 7, 2021, Hamas attack, also praised Trump.
“President Trump has just done what career diplomats have never been able to do—he has brought peace in Gaza closer than ever,” said Mast, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. wrote. “This deal will only work if Hamas gets its way. We don't trust terrorists, we trust results.”
Although US lawmakers made no mention of the suffering of the Palestinian people and the exact terms of the agreement remain unknown, a senior Qatari official said on social networks that this also includes the release of Palestinian prisoners and the delivery of aid.
Still, Mosab Abu Toha, a Palestinian poet who won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for his essays on Gaza for the New Yorker and now lives in Syracuse, New York, expressed alarm.
Trump officially announces that Hamas and Israel have signed the first phase of the Peace Plan. To be honest, I don’t like the language here,” Abu Toha. wrote on social networks. “The agreement signed should be strongly aimed at a permanent ceasefire. No more killing of Palestinians. There should be no phase-out of genocide. This is not really anything close to peace! To me this sounds like a pause in the bloodshed for a few days or weeks!”
“I am old enough to remember the first stage of the previous ‘ceasefire agreement’ in January of this year,” he added.
Also wary was Youssef Munayyer, a Palestinian-American who heads the Palestine and Israel program at the Arab Center in Washington. “It’s a very likely scenario,” he said. wrote on X. “1 Trump receives the Nobel Prize on Friday. 2 Israel returns its captives on the Sabbath. 3 Genocide continues on Sunday.”
Shibli Telami, a Palestinian-American who is the Anwar Sadat Professor of Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, ridiculed the idea that Trump deserves to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this week.
The agreement Trump announced Wednesday “will be very welcome, especially if it includes a full ceasefire and a flow of desperately needed aid to Gaza,” Telami wrote. “But much remains unclear, even about the first phase, including the point of Israeli withdrawal. The key will be measures agreed to ensure that the first phase does not become the last phase.”
“While an end to the carnage is urgently needed, keep in mind: Gaza has been destroyed, with 10% of its population killed or wounded and possibly more, with the vast majority left homeless. It could take decades just to rebuild what has been destroyed – and that's assuming the killings actually stop,” added the scholar, who was born into a Palestinian Christian family near Haifa.
“The agreement is welcome, but the 'peacekeepers' prevent war crimes, including the murder of thousands of children, for the better part of a year, and then expect a Nobel Prize when a ceasefire is finally reached,” Telami watched. “Italian Prime Minister Sent to ICC for Far Less Acceptance of War Crimes.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday she had been reported to the International Criminal Court on charges of complicity in genocide for supporting the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.
