JERUSALEM (AP) — President Donald Trump was in Israel on Monday to celebrate the U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, an agreement that he declared had effectively ended the war and opened the door to building a durable peace in the Middle East.

As he disembarked from Air Force One, a convoy of vehicles carried into Israel the first hostages released by Hamas as part of the deal.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted Trump on the tarmac as a military band played. In Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, the site of continuous demonstrations during two years of war, the crowd cheered for Trump.

The U.S. leader was then whisked off to the Knesset, where he's scheduled to speak to Israeli lawmakers. After arriving, he signed the g

See Full Page