“As you know, last night we reached a momentous breakthrough in the Middle East, something that people said was never going to be done,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

He said all countries in the region had reached a consensus in favour of peace, and that captives held in Gaza were expected to be released on Monday or Tuesday.

“We ended the war and, on a much bigger basis, created peace, and I think it’s going to be a lasting peace – hopefully an everlasting peace,” Trump said. He added that he would soon travel to the Middle East, where Egypt is set to host the official signing of a ceasefire.

“I’m going to try and make a trip over. We’re working on the exact timing,” he said. “We are going to go to Egypt for a signing, an additional one. We have already had a signing representing me, but this will be the official one.”

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi had earlier invited Trump to visit Cairo and attend the ceremony once Israel and Hamas agree to the ceasefire.

Earlier, Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said the US president was expected to travel to Egypt next week, after El-Sisi invited him to attend celebrations marking the Gaza ceasefire deal.

“The president is really excited to come to Egypt, and that is the plan – that he comes next week,” Witkoff said in a meeting with El-Sisi on Thursday, according to a video released by the Egyptian presidency.

President El-Sisi’s office said he had invited Trump to “participate in the celebration to be held in Egypt to mark the conclusion of the agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip”, the first phase of which has already been signed during talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The deal, agreed by Israel and Hamas, provides for a ceasefire and the exchange of captives held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails.

Israel said the ceasefire would take effect “within 24 hours” of a meeting of its security cabinet on Thursday.

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