Jeremy Bowen: Two years on, will Israel and Hamas seize the chance to end the war?
📄 Article Content
# Jeremy Bowen: Two years on, will Israel and Hamas seize the chance to end the war?
3 hours ago
ShareSave
Jeremy Bowen International editor, Jerusalem
ShareSave
Anadolu via Getty Images
Israel's devastating military response to the 7 October attacks has destroyed most of Gaza
After two years of war, there is a chance of a deal that will end the killing and destruction in Gaza and return the Israeli hostages, living and dead, to their families.
It is an opportunity, but it is not certain that it will be seized by Hamas and Israel.
It is a grim coincidence that the talks are happening exactly two years after Hamas inflicted a trauma on Israelis that is still acute.
The 7 October attacks killed around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and 251 were taken hostage. The Israelis estimate that 20 hostages are still alive and they want the return of the bodies of 28 others.
Israel's devastating military response has destroyed most of Gaza and killed more than 66,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians and including more than 18,000 children.
The figures come from the health ministry that is part of the remains of the Hamas administration. Its statistics have usually been regarded as reliable. A study in The Lancet, the medical journal based in London, suggested they were an underestimate.
Watch: Hopes and fears in Gaza and Israel over potential ceasefire
Israelis and Palestinians both want the war to end. Israelis are war-weary and polls show that a majority want a deal that returns the hostages and ends the war. Hundreds of thousands of reservists in the armed forces, the IDF, want to get back to their lives after many months in uniform on active service.
More than two million Palestinians in Gaza are in a humanitarian catastrophe, caught between the firepower of the IDF and hunger and in some areas a man-made famine created by Israel's restrictions on aid entering the Strip.
The version of Hamas that was able to attack Israel with devastating force tw