US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he is planning to travel to Egypt to attend the signing of the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. "I'm going to try and make a trip over. We're going to try and get over there, and we're working on the timing, the exact timing," Trump said during his opening remarks at his White House Cabinet meeting. "We're going to go to Egypt, where we'll have a signing, an additional signing, and we've already had a signing." Trump on return of Israeli hostages Trump also said it is a complicated process for the hostages to be released from Gaza, but it will be happening Monday or Tuesday. He said there will also be the remains of about 28 hostages to be brought back, but he didn’t offer details or timing on that. "Actually, the bodies are a bigger problem, because some of the bodies are going to be a little bit hard to find," Trump said. "The situation with the bodies, you know, they say 20, 28, some are going to be a little bit hard to find. But we're going to do the best we can." 'Big retribution by Israel' Trump, who called the October 7 Hamas terror attack "terrible," also noted that around 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in "big retribution" by Israel. “From the Hamas standpoint, they probably lost 70,000 people. That’s big retribution,” Trump said. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in Washington, as from left, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, right, look on. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi invited Trump to attend the signing ceremony. “It would be truly wonderful if, should an agreement be reached, you could attend its signing,” Sisi had said. Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan Trump played a pivotal role in making the Gaza peace plan possible and ending the ongoing war that has killed over 67,000 Palestinians in the past two years. The US President proposed a 20-point peace plan, which was later accepted by both Israel and Hamas and had the backing of Arab countries. A US delegation led by Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was also in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh on Wednesday, where Hamas and Israel agreed on the first phase of the peace deal. el-Sissi meets Witkoff, Kushner Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi met Witkoff and Kushner in Cairo on Thursday. In a statement after the meeting, the president’s office welcomed the ceasefire agreement, adding that he is eager to celebrate the signing of the deal soon. The statement also said that ending the war is in the “wills of all countries.” The president also reiterated his invitation to Trump to visit Egypt to “witness the signing of this historic agreement in a ceremony befitting the occasion.” Trump's meeting with Muslim leaders was turning point: Rubio US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said Trump’s meeting with Muslim leaders at the UN proved to be a turning point in sealing the Gaza peace deal. Trump met with the leaders of eight Arab or predominantly Muslim countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month to discuss strategy on ending the Israel-Hamas conflict and a plan for post-war Gaza. This was followed by a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House to discuss the plan, and the two leaders agreed to Trump’s 20-point proposal to end the war. Rubio noted that Trump’s negotiators then stepped up their efforts through intermediaries in Qatar and Egypt to get Hamas on board. Trump, meanwhile, held “extraordinary” phone calls and meetings with world leaders that required a high degree of intensity and commitment to get the deal to the finish line. “I think what’s important to understand is that yesterday what happened was really a human story,” Rubio said. He added, “Perhaps the entire story will be told about the events of yesterday. But, suffice it to say, it’s not an exaggeration, none of it would have been possible without the president of the United States being involved.” On Thursday, Trump also thanked the leaders of Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Indonesia for their help in securing the Gaza deal.
