Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his Oval Office meeting last week with US President Donald Trump “did not go the way it was supposed to,” describing the fiery meeting as “regrettable” and noting that Ukraine is ready to negotiate about an end to the conflict.

“I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace,” Zelensky said on X, addressing his remarkable sit-down with Trump directly. Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelensky during the meeting, angrily accusing him of “gambling with World War Three” and telling him: “Your country is in big trouble.”

“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Zelensky wrote in Tuesday’s X post. “It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”

“None of us wants an endless war,” he added. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”

Western leaders will hope the statement goes some way towards smoothing Kyiv’s relations with the White House, but the disastrous Oval Office meeting underlined how strained that relationship has become.

Zelensky also said in his Tuesday statement that Ukraine is ready to sign a minerals deal, which was meant to be signed on Friday until the argument led to Zelensky being told to leave the White House.

“Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format. We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively,” he said.

And he made a rare direct intervention on how a possible ceasefire might work. “We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same,” Zelensky said. “Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal.”

That framework is similar to the plan proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron after Sunday’s summit of Western leaders, which took place in London amid anxiety on the continent about Ukraine’s future.

“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins. We are grateful for this,” Zelensky added.

It remains to be seen how Trump will respond to the Ukrainian leader’s proposals or his reflections on the White House visit. But the lengthy statement suggests an effort by Kyiv to force its voice into discussions on the conflict’s future, after the Trump administration opened talks with Russia last month and refused to invite Ukraine.

Trump on Monday ordered a pause on shipments of US military aid to Ukraine, which could have a dire effect on the country’s war-fighting abilities. The halt in aid, which came after Trump held a series of meetings with top national security officials, will remain in place until Trump determines Zelensky has made a commitment to seeking peace talks, one official said – essentially forcing Ukraine to a negotiating table by threatening further losses on the battlefield.

The last image Oran Almog saw before losing his sight was dead bodies covered in glass – five of them, members of his own family. A suicide bomber had detonated an explosive belt at a Haifa restaurant, killing Almog’s father, brother, grandparents and cousin.

The terrorist attack killed 21 people and wounded 60, including Almog, who was blinded on October 4, 2003. Now, more than two decades later, the man who dispatched the bomber – Sami Jaradat – has been released from Israeli prison as part of the ceasefire and hostage release deal reached between Hamas and Israel in January.

He is among 1,735 Palestinian prisoners released during the ceasefire agreement in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages.

While most prisoners released have not been convicted of any crime and just one-third were convicted of murder or attempted murder, the Israeli government and media typically refer to all prisoners as “terrorists,” which has driven public perceptions around the deal in Israel.

The news of Jaradat’s release left Almog stunned and speechless.

“I never imagined that he would go out from the jail… I was speechless. It was giving really deep pain for me. Not angry, not disappointed, only feeling something was broken in my heart,” he said.

But soon afterwards, Almog began to realize what he called the “price” of this deal, and believed it was one worth paying.

“I understood if Sami Jaradat will stay in the jail forever, my family who was murdered in the terror attack, they will never return alive. But living Israeli hostages still can come back, so this is what was important for me,” he said.

Almog penned an op-ed in Israeli newspaper Haaretz shortly after he learned Jaradat would be released, urging Israelis to “put aside the disagreements over the price, and focus on the main thing” – referring to the release of hostages.

Protesters’ opposition

Jaradat and 109 other Palestinians were freed from detention on January 30 following the release of Israeli hostages Arbel Yehoud, Gadi Moses and Israeli soldier Agam Berger, who were taken captive during the October 7 attacks.

Almog said it reminded him of the moment his cousin Chen Almog-Goldstein, who was also taken hostage by Hamas with her surviving children on October 7, was released during the first short-lived ceasefire and hostage release deal in November 2023.

“I will never forget this evening when they got the first hug from our family… I understood the joy and happiness of Israelis coming back home,” he reflected.

But Almog’s perspective is not one shared by all Israelis.

Many, including a small number of hostage families that belong to the right-wing Tikva Forum and Gvura Forum, have opposed a ceasefire from the get-go.

Days after the deal was announced on January 15, hundreds of protesters belonging to the two forums took to the streets in Jerusalem, chanting, “Don’t make a deal with the devil!” and “Sinwar was also released in a deal!”

They recall how Yahya Sinwar, the late leader of Hamas and architect of the October 7 attacks, was released from Israeli imprisonment along with 1,027 Palestinians in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.

Yehoshua Shani, the father of an Israeli soldier killed on October 7, invoked that history and called all Palestinians being released “vile murderers.”

“The price of this deal has already been written, we just don’t know who will pay the price,” he said.

Some Israelis oppose the release of Palestinians from Israeli jails and instead insist that defeating Hamas through strong military action should be the top priority for Israel and is the best strategy to bring back the hostages.

Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Hamas, which lasted 42 days and concluded last weekend, leaving the truce hanging by a thread, 33 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 1,735 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

A ‘bargaining chip’

According to information from the Israel Prison Service and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, the majority of those cleared for release were detained without charge and were not put on trial or given an opportunity to defend themselves.

Of the 1,735 Palestinians, about 15% were convicted of killing Israelis, including civilians and soldiers. Most of them were imprisoned during the first and second intifadas, uprisings by Palestinians against Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank. Another 18% were convicted of attempted murder.

Nearly two-thirds of the total were being held without trial, including 1,000 Palestinians detained in Gaza during the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Israel Prison Service.

The remainder were convicted of lesser charges like being affiliated to an “outlawed organization” or “incitement,” a vague charge that has been used to jail Palestinians over social media posts, including those expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

“Israelis believe that a Palestinian that’s being held in Israeli detention – by virtue of being held in Israeli detention – must be a terrorist,” she said.

Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank fall under the jurisdiction of Israel’s military court system, where rights groups say the conviction rate is over 99%.

Human rights organizations have denounced the system as a means to maintain Israel’s control over Palestinians.

“There’s no question that many people were arrested, detained, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, for the purpose of having them as a bargaining chip. And some of those people probably didn’t commit any act, maybe some of them did…the problem is that Israelis are not willing to look at both of those types of prisoners,” Scheindlin said.

Still, despite equating the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to the release of terrorists, Israeli polling suggests a majority of Israelis overwhelmingly support the ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Like most Israelis, Almog has come to prioritize the lives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza over the ‘price’ of freeing Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis.

But he will not forget that price, nor what it has delivered.

“To understand the price, that my pain brings the Israeli hostages home… is really important to me,” Almog said. “I don’t know, maybe someday I will meet Agam, Gadi and Arbel and feel the full meaning, the full importance of this deal and this price to me.”

Arab leaders on Tuesday endorsed Egypt’s postwar plan for the Gaza Strip that would allow its roughly 2 million Palestinians to remain, in a counterproposal to US President Donald Trump’s plan to depopulate the territory and redevelop it as a beach destination.

It was unclear if Israel or the United States would accept the Egyptian plan whose endorsement by Arab leaders, announced by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, amounted to a widespread rejection of Trump’s proposal. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.

Tuesday’s summit in Cairo included the emir of Qatar, the vice president of the United Arab Emirates and the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia — countries whose support is crucial for any postwar plan. UN Secretary-General António Guterres also attended.

Addressing the summit, el-Sissi said that the plan “preserves the right of Palestinian people in rebuilding their nation and guarantees their existence on their land.”

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the summit’s final communique calls on the UN Security Council to deploy an international peacekeeping force in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“Peace is the Arabs’ strategic option,” he told a news conference, adding that the communique rejected the transfer of Palestinians and endorsed Egypt’s reconstruction plan.

“The Egyptian plan creates a path for a new security and political context in Gaza,” he said.

Israel has embraced what it says is an alternative US proposal for the ceasefire itself and the release of hostages taken in Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war. Israel has blocked the entry of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza to try to get Hamas to accept the new proposal and has warned of additional consequences, raising fears of a return to fighting.

The suspension of aid drew widespread criticism, with human rights groups saying that it violated Israel’s obligations as an occupying power under international law.

The new plan would require Hamas to release half its remaining hostages — the militant group’s main bargaining chip — in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners — a key component of the first phase.

Egypt’s postwar plan

Egypt’s $53 billion plan foresees rebuilding Gaza by 2030 without removing its population. The first phase calls for starting the removal of unexploded ordnance and clearing more than 50 million tons of rubble left by Israel’s bombardment and military offensives.

The final communique said Egypt will host an international conference in cooperation with the United Nations for Gaza’s reconstruction, and a World Bank-overseen trust fund will be established to receive pledges to implement the early recovery and reconstruction plan.

According to a 112-page draft of the plan obtained by The Associated Press, hundreds of thousands of temporary housing units would be set up for Gaza’s population while reconstruction takes place. The rubble would be recycled, with some of it used as infill to expand land on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.

In the following years, the plan envisages completely reshaping the strip, building “sustainable, green and walkable” housing and urban areas, with renewable energy. It renovates agricultural lands and creates industrial zones and large park areas.

It also calls for the opening of an airport, a fishing port and a commercial port. The Oslo peace accords in the 1990s called for the opening of an airport and a commercial port in Gaza, but the projects withered as the peace process collapsed.

Under the plan, Hamas would cede power to an interim administration of political independents until a reformed Palestinian Authority can assume control. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Western-backed authority and an opponent of Hamas, was attending the summit.

Israel has ruled out any role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza and, along with the United States, has demanded Hamas’ disarmament. Hamas, which doesn’t accept Israel’s existence, has said it’s willing to cede power in Gaza to other Palestinians, but won’t give up its arms until there is a Palestinian state.

Speaking at the summit, el-Sissi said there is a need for a parallel path for peace to achieve a “comprehensive, just and lasting settlement” to the Palestinian cause.

“There will be no true peace without the establishment of the Palestinian state,” the Egyptian leader said. “It’s time to adopt the launching of a serious and effective political path that leads to a permanent and lasting solution to the Palestinian cause according to the resolutions of international legitimacy.”

Israel has vowed to maintain open-ended security control over both territories, which it captured in the 1967 Mideast war and which Palestinians want for their future state. Israel’s government and most of its political class are opposed to Palestinian statehood.

Trump shocked the region last month when he suggested Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians be resettled in other countries. He said the United States would take ownership of the territory and redevelop it into a Middle Eastern “Riviera.”

Netanyahu embraced the proposal, which was roundly rejected by Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights experts, who said it would likely violate international law.

Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa director at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said Egypt was “trying to present a credible alternative focused on reconstruction and an indirect consultation mechanism for Hamas that could reassure Israel and the US.”

Jordan offers to treat children from Gaza

Trump has suggested Egypt and Jordan, two close American allies, could take in large numbers of Palestinian refugees from Gaza. Both countries have adamantly rejected any such plan.

Meeting with Trump at the White House last month, King Abdullah II of Jordan offered to take in around 2,000 for medical treatment. The first group of around 30 children, accompanied by up to two family members, left Gaza for Jordan on Tuesday, according to Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

Jordan said the children are amputees and will return to Gaza when their treatment is complete. The kingdom has also set up field hospitals in Gaza and delivered aid by air and land.

The war began with Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people hostage. Hamas-led militants are still holding 59 hostages, 35 of whom are believed to be dead.

Most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements. Israel has rescued eight living hostages and recovered the remains of dozens more.

Israel’s 15-month offensive killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It doesn’t say how many were fighters, but the ministry says women and children made up more than half the dead. Israel says it killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The offensive destroyed large areas of Gaza, including much of its health system and other infrastructure. At its height, the war displaced about 90% of the population, mostly within the territory, where hundreds of thousands packed into squalid tent camps and schools repurposed as shelters.

Israel’s Shin Bet security agency has said it “failed in its mission” to prevent Hamas’ October 7 attack by ignoring repeated warning signs.

Shin Bet’s chief, Ronen Bar, said in a statement that if Shin Bet had “acted differently in the years leading up to the attack and on the night of the attack (…) the massacre would have been prevented.”

“As the head of the organization, I will carry this heavy burden on my shoulders for the rest of my life,” he said.

In a summary of an internal investigation published Tuesday evening, Shin Bet, officially the Israel Security Agency, said that a wide range of factors were responsible for Hamas’ ability to stage the catastrophic attack.

Among them, Shin Bet said, were Qatar’s years-long payments to Hamas. Those payments were blessed by Israel, whose government believed it was beneficial to drive a political wedge between Gaza and the West Bank.

Despite being made aware of Hamas’ plan for a broad offensive, known as “The Walls of Jericho,” in two different iterations in 2018 and 2022, the security agency failed to prevent the biggest terrorist attack in the country’s history.

The security agency received a sequence of signs that Hamas was preparing for an emergency, but decided the militant group were “not interested in escalation” and the plans were never perceived as an active threat, Shin Bet said.

The report summary says that the agency had huge gaps in “the recruitment and operation of human agents” in Gaza and that it was unclear where the Shin Bet and Israeli military responsibilities for detecting an attack from Gaza lay.

Hamas and its allies killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.

The investigation summary was published five days after an investigation by the Israeli military that highlighted gaps in intelligence gathering, flawed assumptions about Hamas, and “systemic” failures in the Israel Defense Force’s preparedness and response.

But Shin Bet says that it alone does not entirely carry the burden for the October 7 attack.

Shin Bet also blamed policies enacted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as contributing factors, setting off a political firestorm.

Among the factors that contributed to Hamas’ decision to launch the attack, the report summary said, were Israeli politicians’ visits to the Al Aqsa compound in Jerusalem, “the treatment of prisoners, and the perception that Israeli society has been weakened due to the damage to social cohesion.”

The source close to Netanyahu also accused the Shin Bet chief of failing to wake up the prime minister on the night of the attack, despite it being “the most basic and obvious decision imaginable.”

Netanyahu’s team has ramped up its criticism of the agency and Bar in recent weeks, especially after it was revealed that Shin Bet is investigating several people in Netanyahu’s office for inappropriately lobbying on behalf of Qatar’s government – something his office denies.

He removed Bar and the head of the Mossad, David Barnea, from the negotiating team engaging in indirect talks with Hamas.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid slammed Netanyahu for what he said was shirking responsibility for the devastating attack. “The prime minister continues to try to shift the blame onto others, this time it’s ‘they didn’t wake me up,’” Lapid said on X Tuesday.

“This country has been awake for 515 days, we still have hostages in Gaza. It’s time for you to wake up, apologize, take responsibility. This happened on your watch,” he added.

Israel’s former defense minister Benny Gantz also criticized Netanyahu for “throwing mud at the Shin Bet” instead of apologizing. “There is no leadership, no responsibility and there is no limit to cynicism,” Gantz said on X.