The new open-ended Gaza ceasefire is continuing to hold today, and there is a growing belief among analysts that the nearly two-month war is over. Gazans are heading home from shelters, looking at years of reconstruction, decades if aid shipments are slow to come.
And while Gazans are centering their focus on practical concerns of post-war reconstruction, officials on both sides are trying to advance a narrative that the war was a “victory.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the war a “great military and political” victory, while his aides touted the damage done to Gaza in general and Hamas in particular as proof they’d won the war.
Hamas, by contrast, portrayed survival as a victory, and the easing of the blockade as icing on the cake. How well that plays in the strip among survivors of the latest war is yet to be seen.
The narrative seems to be convincing to Israel’s cabinet hawks, which are outraged at any end to the war under any circumstances. They are still pushing for a unilateral resumption of the war, though at this point it seems unlikely.
