For the first time in two years, Israel can breathe. Relief, gratitude, and exhaustion mingle as the hostages begin to return, and a nation emerges – battered but standing – from one of the darkest and most difficult chapters in its history.
The day long imagined but seldom believed possible has finally arrived. After two years of anguish, Israelis are preparing to witness the homecoming of those torn from their families – a moment that restores a measure of justice and reminds the country of its own stubborn will to endure. For a brief moment, it feels as though a terrible wrong has been righted.
That relief, however, is tempered by sober reflection: that it took so long, that so many lives were lost before US President Donald Trump brokered a deal that neither Netanyahu, Hamas, nor mediators Egypt and Qatar could afford to refuse.
Yet, even within that frustration lies acknowledgment of what perseverance, military resolve, and diplomatic pressure have ultimately achieved.
In the days ahead, global and regional reactions will determine which doors this agreement opens – and which ones it closes. Israel’s relations with its neighbors and with its closest ally have already been shaped by two years of war. They will now be tested and, perhaps, redefined by the choices made in the coming days and by what comes next.
How this deal was achieved – and how earlier efforts failed – will also reverberate in Israel’s politics and determine the contours of the next election. It will shape the campaign already underway to cast the agreement as a national success and measure how much credit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can claim. Only on election day will we be able to see whether the public agrees.
But those arguments will unfold later. For now, there is quiet acknowledgment that something once thought unattainable has been realized.
Hamas did not agree to release all the hostages at one time as a result of Trump’s diplomatic acumen alone. It was forced to do so by pressure, by the persistence of IDF soldiers and reservists who fought to dismantle Hamas and by a public that refused to let the hostage issue fade. This outcome, as painful and costly as it has been, is also a testament to Israel’s endurance and unity of purpose.
Still, the images from Gaza – an enclave reduced to ruin – will remain etched in global memory. However justified this campaign was, its diplomatic cost abroad is steep.
Israel’s challenge now is not only to rebuild what was destroyed in its South, but also to restore its standing in a world where, for many, the moral compass has been lost and too many can no longer distinguish between terrorists who scorn human life and those forced to fight them.
The immediate danger ahead for Israel is complacency. In the rush toward relief and normalcy, Israelis cannot allow old habits of apathy, division, and avoidance to return. Two years is a long time to live inside a nightmare. We must now learn from it, not merely survive it.
These years have revealed that the home front is as vital as the battlefield; that mental and psychological resilience are as essential as physical security; and that the fractures within Israeli society cannot simply be ignored. Real dialogue – as Jewish tradition teaches – demands patience, empathy, nuance, and solidarity. Anything less will tear us apart.
In the battle of narratives, Israel has struggled to tell its story, and the Palestinian narrative has won this round. Hamas propaganda, amplified by Al Jazeera and by organized pro-Palestinian student movements in the West, has revived some of the oldest antisemitic tropes in modern history.
Yet the real challenge is not messaging but mindset. Israel cannot afford to treat the Palestinian issue as something to be ignored until violence erupts again. Jerusalem needs to be proactive because neglect carries its own heavy cost.
As Western and Arab leaders convene in Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss “the future of Israelis and Palestinians” – without either side represented at the table – Israelis must remember that this front is not behind us. It is merely waiting for our attention.
The nightmare may finally be over. Now, the test of what we’ve learned begins.