OSLO, Norway — The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prestigious peace prize, held its final meeting on Monday, the Nobel Institute said Thursday, a day ahead of the announcement of the 2025 laureate.
This means a decision was made about the laureate or laureates before the conclusion of an agreement between Israel and Hamas, which included a ceasefire and the release of hostages amid the war triggered on October 7, 2023, with the Palestinian terror group’s devastating attack on Israel.
The deal, seen as a major step toward ending the two years of war in Gaza, was struck under pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has made no secret of the fact that he believes he is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, a proposition backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid.
“The last meeting of the Nobel Committee took place on Monday,” Erik Aasheim, spokesman for the Norwegian Nobel Institute, told AFP.
Comprised of five members, the Nobel Committee typically makes its decision several days or even weeks before and meets one last time in the run-up to the official announcement.
“The final touches were made on Monday, but we never disclose when the Nobel Committee makes its decision,” Aasheim added.
No further committee meetings are scheduled before the laureate’s name is revealed on Friday at 12:00 p.m. Israel time (0900 GMT), he explained.
“There will be a laureate this year,” he said, even as some experts have speculated that the Nobel Committee — due to the deteriorated geopolitical situation — might refrain from awarding the prize.
Claiming a role in resolving multiple conflicts, Trump has repeatedly asserted since his return to the White House in January that he deserves the nod.
He recently said that it would be “a big insult” to the United States if he were not given the prize.
In July, Netanyahu told Trump during their meeting in the White House that he had nominated the US president for the coveted prize, even though nominations for this year closed in February. Trump was nominated by others before the deadline, however.
On Thursday, after Trump announced overnight the agreement on a ceasefire, Herzog said there is “no doubt” that his counterpart deserves the prize, and Lapid later concurred. On Monday, families of hostages held in Gaza urged the Norwegian Nobel Committee to give the peace prize to Trump for his efforts to secure the release of their loved ones.
The agreement between Israel and Hamas “has absolutely no impact” on the choice of the 2025 laureate because “the Nobel Committee has already made its decision,” historian Asle Sveen, a specialist in the Nobel Prize, told AFP.
“Trump will not win the prize this year. I’m 100 percent certain,” he said.
He emphasized that the US president had long “given free rein” to Netanyahu to bomb Gaza and had provided significant military aid to Israel.
This year, 338 individuals and organizations were nominated for the Peace Prize, which in 2024 was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a group of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings campaigning against nuclear weapons.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas led thousands of terrorists to invade southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, abducting 251 people as hostages to Gaza, and opening the still ongoing war. Trump has made ending the war and freeing the remaining hostages still in captivity a central plank of his administration’s foreign policy.