Trump and mediators sign the Gaza peace agreement in front of world leaders.

Beirut"Welcome to the land of peaceThe sign at the entrance to the Sharm al-Sheikh convention center welcomed heads of state and delegations to the so-called Gaza Peace Summit on Monday. Amid heightened security and a blazing heatwave, the leaders walked the red carpet in a spectacular display of work a few hundred kilometers north, where the war between Israel and Hamas has left more than 67,000 dead and Much of the Strip reduced to rubble.

The summit sought to send a clear message: international diplomacy is working to consolidate a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza. "We have achieved what everyone said was impossible: peace in the Middle East," declared US President Donald Trump, who emerged as the undisputed protagonist of the event. However, the reality on the ground remains much more complex.

The meeting, co-chaired by Trump and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, brought together more than 20 heads of state and government, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres and representatives from the European Union, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and France. Neither Benjamin Netanyahu nor any Hamas representative attended; an absence that limited the scope of direct negotiations. Diplomatic sources indicated that Israel was absent due to internal calculations of political image, while Hamas was officially excluded from the negotiating table.

After a brief visit to Israel, Trump opened the summit with a speech in which he argued that "this is a historic opportunity to end a war that has lasted too long" and stressed that Washington will not accept a return tostatus quo Previously, Trump praised his Egyptian counterpart, stating that Egypt has played "a very important role" in the negotiations with Hamas. He also assured them that the United States fully supports him. Sisi, meanwhile, told Trump that he was "the only one capable of bringing peace" to his region and emphasized Washington's central role in the mediation process.

The final joint statement, published at the end of the day, sets out three key objectives: consolidating the humanitarian pause, transforming the truce into a permanent ceasefire, and establishing an internationally supervised political process leading to a new civilian administration in Gaza. Egypt and the United States will act as guarantors of the agreement's follow-up.

What now?

Several analysts emphasize that the most difficult stage will come after Trump's departure from the Middle East. Aziz Alghashian, a Saudi academic, considers the next steps complex: "The world has finally achieved something it had long hoped for: the active participation of the US. But maintaining that influence while the details are worked out is the most difficult. There doesn't seem to be any long-term planning." Practical challenges include the disarmament of Hamas, Israel's complete withdrawal from Gaza, and security on the Egyptian border, where there are fears of a massive influx of refugees that could destabilize the region.

According to Aymen Abdel Wahab of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Egypt faces the most delicate part of implementation: "The real challenges are not in the first phase of the agreement, but in the second, when work will be done on security and maintaining peace." The Gulf countries, which are emerging as the main funders of Gaza's reconstruction, fear being drawn into a situation where they fund reconstruction while Israeli operations continue in the territory.

António Guterres warned that "time is running out to avoid a total collapse of the region" and called for verifiable commitments. Emmanuel Macron stressed the need for security guarantees for Israel, but also political rights for the Palestinians, and recalled the balance sought by the European Union. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his "hope" at the agreement reached and underscored the importance of moving toward a definitive peace. Saudi Arabia and Turkey, for their part, used the margins of the summit to press on the role of the Palestinian Authority and the protection of civilians, seeking to ensure that reconstruction and assistance are not subordinated to strictly strategic interests.

The summit also served to highlight the magnitude of the practical challenges. Sharm al-Sheikh has thus become the scene of a high-profile first diplomatic step. Although the challenges are significant, from border security to the legitimacy of the future civilian administration, the agreement offers an opportunity to move toward stability in the region. For the first time in months, international diplomacy has succeeded in articulating a framework for cooperation that could become the basis for a lasting ceasefire and a political future for Gaza.