Benjamin Netanyahu has posted an AI image of himself presenting Donald Trump with a Nobel Peace Prize medallion amid mounting speculation that the US president could win the award today.
The image, posted on the Israeli prime minister’s X account, shows Trump lifting his hands in the air as he sports an oversized medal and is showered in confetti in front of a cheering crowd waving Israeli flags.
The US president is stood under a banner reading ‘peace through strength.’
‘Give [Donald Trump] the Nobel Peace Prize — he deserves it,’ the post is captioned.
It comes amid growing anticipation the US president could be handed the prize after the Israeli government approved his ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas, following the two-year anniversary of the October 7 massacre.
Trump, who ripped into Barack Obama for being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, announced on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas had agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire, after days of indirect talks in Egypt.
Netanyahu’s government said on Thursday it had given its final approval to back the agreement after 734 days of war.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement: ‘The government has just now approved the framework for the release of all of the hostages – the living and the deceased.’
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The ceasefire began immediately after the Israeli government’s approval, with the military given 24 hours to withdraw from Gaza along an agreed-upon line, an Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity said.
It came despite fierce opposition from Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Under Trump’s deal, Hamas plans to release all remaining hostages, both living and dead, in exchange for roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Once they are returned, Israel will free 250 Palestinians serving life sentences and 1,700 Gazans who have been held since October 7.
‘We are getting the hostages back on Tuesday – Monday or Tuesday – and that’ll be a day of joy,’ Trump said.
America will send 200 troops to monitor the ceasefire deal, although separate reports from a senior US official say they will not be deployed in Gaza.
Instead, there will be a ‘joint task force’ that could include soldiers from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the UAE.
Trump has consistently claimed that he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, while families of hostages have urged the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award it to him, adding he ‘brought us light through our darkest times’ with his 20 point peace plan for Gaza.
The US president says he should receive it for his role in ending the Israel-Gaza conflict as well as conflict between Cambodia-Thailand, Kosovo-Serbia, Congo-Rwanda, Pakistan-India, Egypt-Ethiopia and Armenia-Azerbaijan.
‘I deserve it, but they will never give it to me,’ he said when asked the award in February.
While in June he said ‘I should have gotten it four or five times’.
Trump has previously been nominated for his role in brokering the 2020 Abraham Accords which led to the normalization of relations between Israel and four Arab neighbours.
He has been nominated more than 10 times over his two terms in power – by Netanyahu, Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet, a Ukrainian politician, as well as legislators from the US, Sweden, and Norway.
It came after Trump took credit for stopping Iran and Israel’s ’12-day war’ the month prior.
Trump lashed out at Obama for winning the ‘prize for doing nothing’ as he hosted the Finnish prime minister following the historic peace deal between Israel and Hamas.
Obama received the prestigious award in 2009, just eight months into his first term.
‘They gave it to Obama for absolutely nothing but destroying our country,’ Trump said.
‘I’ve stopped eight wars, so that’s never happened before — but they’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that, I did it because I saved a lot of lives.’
Experts say the committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals.
But longtime Nobel watchers say Trump’s chances remain remote despite notable foreign policy interventions for which he has taken personal credit.
The Emergency Response Rooms, a community-led networkhas provided humanitarian aid to millions of people caught up in the civil war in Sudan, have been tipped as favourites, alongside Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian pro-democracy activist Alexei Navalny.
Last year’s award went to Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of Japanese atomic bombing survivors who have worked for decades to maintain a taboo around the use of nuclear weapons.
The peace prize is the only one of the annual Nobel prizes to be awarded in Oslo, Norway.
Four of the other prizes have already been awarded in the Swedish capital, Stockholm this week – in medicine on Monday, physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The winner of the prize in economics will be announced on Monday.
