Is the Gaza War Really Over? Difficult Questions Linger 3 Years After Oct. 7 | World News

Three years after the brutal 2023 attack by Hamas triggered Israel’s sweeping military campaign in Gaza, it’s fair to wonder how and when the war that has devastated the Palestinian enclave will truly end.

“After years of suffering and bloodshed, the war in Gaza is over,” he said at the end of talks held in Egypt.

But Trump offered little specific information about what would come next. And in the months since, Israel’s military has continued to operate in Gaza, with airstrikes picking up in the leadup to a national election.

Now, weeks before voters determine whether embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu retains control of Israel’s government, the unsettled state of the conflict is spotlighting a host of difficult questions about where things stand and what is to come.

In the year since Trump announced the ceasefire, the Israeli military has continued to strike Gaza, resulting in more than 1,400 additional deaths.

In all, the war has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to its health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. When Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, they killed more than 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.

Trump established a Board of Peace charged with bringing the conflict to an end. But it has struggled to make progress on the disarmament of Hamas and troop withdrawal by Israel so rebuilding can begin.

“There is a ceasefire in name only,” policy expert Hugh Lovatt recently told the Washington Post.

A string of Israeli officials and military leaders have resigned over the security breakdown that preceded the October 2023 attack. But Netanyahu has resisted calls for an inquiry to examine the failures that preceded it.

Many Israeli voters, including former hostages and their families, have demanded accountability and see the Oct. 27 election as the best chance for it.

Netanyahu has blamed Israeli security chiefs, but has refused to accept personal responsibility. He has stuck with that position despite recent reports that he received explicit warnings of an attack, but took no action.

Nearly two of every three Israelis say that the attack that took place three years ago will be central to the decisions they make in the upcoming election, according to a recent poll.

“Questions of security, accountability, and whether the lessons of the attack have truly been learned will weigh heavily on many voters as they make their choice,” said Yohanan Plesner, the president of The Israel Democracy Institutewhich conducted the survey.

Israelis, despite those shared concerns, are deeply divided.

Polls show a tight race between Netanyahu’s Likud party and that of his chief rival, Gadi Eisenkota general who quit the war cabinet in 2024 and leads the Yashar opposition bloc.

Netanyahu opponents say he should pay for failures that led to the deadliest day in Israel’s history. His supporters say Netanyahu has been a strong leader, avenging the attack and leading Israel in wars against the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and its chief backer, Iran.

Violence has exploded in recent years in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, home to about 3 million Palestinians and 500,000 Jewish settlers. The territory was the site of deadly clashes before the war began in Gaza. But extremist settlers have stepped up attacks on Palestinians, even as Israeli forces carry out raids targeting Palestinian militants in response to rising insurgency.

Netanyahu, dependent on the support of far-right politicians who back expanded settlement, has dismissed calls to crack down on settler violence, characterizing the attacks as the work of a small group of juvenile delinquents.

Iron droppings have called for change in the West Bank. But his focus has been on restoring order. He said he would remove far-right leaders from positions overseeing the territory and security apparatus, and put the Israeli police and military back in control.