A Strategic Dilemma

Israel and Hamas have extended their truce for two days — through tomorrow — which will bring the pause in fighting to six days. The deal is a sign that both sides have benefited from it.

What comes next is less clear, though.

For Israel’s leaders in particular, the pause has created a strategic dilemma. They have big reasons to extend it again — and big reasons to resume fighting.

On the one hand, many international groups and other countries support a cease-fire, pointing to the brutal death toll among Gazan civilians since Oct. 7. President Biden has also pushed for the pause to continue so long as Hamas is releasing hostages. Within Israel, families of the hostages have called on their country’s leaders to prioritize the release of all hostages.

On the other hand, the pause offers advantages to Hamas. Its leaders can move to new hiding places. Its militants can fortify their positions in southern Gaza before future fighting. And Hamas can hope that the pause leads the U.S. to push Israel to moderate its war aims. “To end the war now would leave Hamas still in charge of most of Gaza,” my colleague Patrick Kingsley has written .