Waiting for Ran Gvili |
This Editor’s Note was sent out earlier Wednesday in ToI’s weekly update email to members of the Times of Israel Community. To receive these Editor’s Notes as they’re released, join the ToI Community here.
For over 800 days, The Times of Israel has kept a numbered red tag, “Israel at War,” at the very top of our site, underlining that we entered a new and terrible era with the Hamas invasion, slaughter and mass abductions of October 7, 2023.
There are compelling reasons to argue that the war is now over, and compelling reasons to assert that it is not. Several readers have written to us about this, more making the first argument than the second. I’m not quite persuaded.
Wars tend to end with ceasefires, and a ceasefire agreement of sorts was indeed signed by Israeli and Hamas representatives in Sharm el-Sheikh on October 9 this year, was sort of approved by the Israeli government, and took effect the following day.
US President Donald Trump, who was central to the brokering of that agreement, has repeatedly declared the war over, and made clear his determination to prevent a resurgence of intense military conflict.
Most of Israel’s troops have withdrawn from the Gaza Strip, most reservists have been sent home, and the IDF has generally, though not exclusively, been confining itself to defensive operations.
And all but one of the hostages abducted on October 7 have been released, or their bodies returned.
On the other hand, the two core declared goals of the war have not been fully achieved.
Hamas has not been disarmed, and indeed is adamant that it will not lay down its weapons as required by the second phase of Trump’s