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Is­rael and Hamas have agreed to a pause in their dev­as­tat­ing two-year war and the re­lease of the re­main­ing hostages in ex­change for Pales­tin­ian pris­on­ers — a break­through greet­ed with joy and re­lief Thurs­day but al­so cau­tion.

Un­cer­tain­ty re­mains about as­pects of the broad­er cease­fire plan ad­vanced by the ad­min­is­tra­tion of U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump — such as whether and how Hamas will dis­arm and who will gov­ern Gaza. But the sides ap­pear clos­er than they have been in months to end­ing a war that has killed tens of thou­sands of Pales­tini­ans, re­duced much of Gaza to rub­ble, brought famine to parts of the ter­ri­to­ry and left dozens of hostages, liv­ing and dead, in Gaza.

The war, which be­gan with Hamas’ dead­ly at­tack on Is­rael on Oct. 7, 2023, has al­so trig­gered oth­er con­flicts in the re­gion, sparked world­wide protests and led to al­le­ga­tions of geno­cide that Is­rael de­nies.3