Friends of Yuval and Noam Rabia, two brothers who were murdered by Hamas while fleeing the Nova Music Festival, at the memorial site in Re’im the day after 20 living hostages were released from captivity in Gaza.David Blumenfeld/The Globe and Mail
Tomer Saliah and Lior Shemesh drove their mountain bikes south from Tel Aviv Tuesday morning, ready for a ride they have been avoiding for two years.
Here's what you need to know about Gaza and the Israel-Hamas war, including the ceasefire deal, the toll of the war so far and what comes next.
The gravel trails around Kibbutz Be’eri slip through the hills and forests of the northwestern Negev. Their tranquil beauty has made them one of the country’s most popular cycling destinations. Their proximity to Gaza has also made them its most deadly.
On Oct. 7, 2023, a dozen cyclists were among those killed or taken captive by Hamas-led militants on Simchat Torah, a holiday that is normally a celebratory occasion.
The entrance to the bike trail near Kibbutz Be’eri, the site of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.David Blumenfeld
But “after what happened in Simchat Torah two years ago, it was like this is forever going to be a sad day,” Mr. Saliah said. Now, “it’s back again as a happy day.”
Down the narrow strip of southern Israel that runs alongside Gaza, thousands of Israelis marked the moment by returning for the first time to places deeply scarred by a conflict now frozen into a ceasefire.
Pedalling around Be’eri was a chance “to close the loop – and also to show that we are here. No matter what happens, we will continue,” said Mr. Shemesh.
Tomer Saliah, left, and Lior Shemesh, right, ride their bikes along a trail near Kibbutz Be’eri.David Blumenfeld/The Globe and Mail
The men set off on their ride at a tenuous moment, the fragility of the ceasefire underscored by new conflict between Israel and Hamas over Hamas not immediately repatriating the remains of 24 dead hostages. On Monday, only four were sent back. Four more were returned Tuesday night. Israel told the United Nations it would cut in half the number of aid trucks allowed into the region, accusing Hamas of violating its agreement.
Separately, Israeli troops killed several people in Gaza, accusing them of advancing toward troops. Israeli forces continue to assert control over more than half of the territory in Gaza.
Nimrod Zilkha and Sagi Karni visit a migunit – a portable protective shelter – with their families in southern Israel where Aner Shapiro was killed while throwing back grenades, saving many people, including his friend Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was kidnapped and later murdered by Hamas. The visit took place the day after the last 20 living hostages were released from captivity.David Blumenfeld/The Globe and Mail
Some Palestinian families, meanwhile, were angered to discover that their loves ones, released by Israel in tandem with the Hamas release of hostages, were deported to other countries rather than returned to their homes.
“Peace” is hardly the right word to describe the relative cessation of violence now in place, said Sagi Karni, an Israeli father who travelled Tuesday with a friend, Nimrod Zilkha, and their six children, aged nine to 17, to a roadside shelter outside Kibbutz Re’im, which became a “bunker of death” when 16 people were killed inside two years ago.
“I really hope that it will be a long-term ceasefire.” But peace, he said, continues to seem far from reach.
Israel to halve number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza over slow return of hostages’ bodies
Inside the shelter, the children ran their fingers along the walls, their hands dwarfed by pits gouged into the concrete left by the violence that took place here.
“It’s history. It’s like the Holocaust,” said Mr. Zilkha. He hoped standing in this spot would have emotional value, for him and for the children.
“It’s closure,” he said.
Relatives of released hostages were emotional on Tuesday after Hamas released their loved ones as part of a Gaza ceasefire agreement.
The Associated Press
For others, the lowered hostilities offered an opportunity to deliver a fresh lesson to a new generation. At an Israeli overlook with an expansive view on to Gaza, one father said his children should understand that people there remain enemies and Israel must remain vigilant to defend against them.
Dust billowed from Israeli military vehicles passing in the distance, in front of the remnants of Gaza’s skyline, made jagged by bombed buildings. More than 67,000 people died in Gaza, according to authorities in the Hamas-run region. Under the ceasefire, countless more have returned to homes that no longer exist. In September, the UN commission found that Israel has committed a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which Israel denies.
The tenuous ceasefire in Gaza is holding after the release of the last living hostages and Palestinian prisoners. However, questions remain about key parts of a U.S. plan for the region.
The Associated Press
On the Israeli side, meanwhile, people walked through a forest of signs with pictures of the hundreds of people killed by militants at the Nova music festival.
“We been through a lot in this area. So it’s very hard to come here,” said Moran Atlas, whose family were close friends with Sharon Rahmani, a police chief superintendent killed shortly after she arrived for her shift at the music festival. Before the ceasefire, it felt too dangerous to come to this site, Ms. Atlas said.
She walked through the site Tuesday for the first time.
Even today, “we are not sure it is finished. Trump said the war is over. But we are not sure,” she said.
Ms. Atlas lived through the Oct. 7 attack while at a home in a family member’s moshav near Gaza and has been gradually allowing herself to confront what happened. She cautiously made her way through a TV series about the events that day, worried that playing back the sounds of gunfire and explosions would reawaken difficult memories.
“This is the next step. To come here. To see everything,” she said.
“What caused me to come today is that the live hostages came back yesterday, and the ceasefire,” she added. “It’s been two years. We have to move on.”
Yehuda Rahmani, father of Sharon Rahmani, a police officer in the Negev District of the Israel Police who was killed on Oct. 7 while fighting Hamas gunmen at the Nova music festival, visits the site near Re’im. He has come here every day since the attack. A memorial to his daughter stands just behind his shoulder, and he bears a tattoo of her portrait and the date of Oct. 7 on his arm.David Blumenfeld/The Globe and Mail
She hopes the return of hostages will, for her and for Israel, offer a chance to begin healing.
“People can actually start to recover,” she said.
Yehuda Rahmani, the father of the slain police officer, has no such hope. He returns to the music festival site every day, spending hours at a picnic table a few steps from a poster board that displays his daughter’s picture and a few details of her life.
The ceasefire has done nothing to salve a pain that, he says, will burn eternal. Nor does he have any hope that the current quiet of silenced guns can last. The festival site lies a few kilometres from Gaza, and its population of people Mr. Rahmani will never again trust.
“There will never be real peace – never with them,” he said.
Not even a ceasefire can restore a feeling of security, said Marlene Vaizma, who lives in Kiryat Shmona, a city in northern Israel along the border with Lebanon where skirmishes with Hezbollah have continued for years. On Tuesday, she woke early to drive several hours to the music festival site for the first time, where she visited a friend whose two sons were killed on Oct. 7.
“It’s not safe. Even today, when we come here, it’s possible for something to happen again,” she said.
She has heard U.S. President Donald Trump declare the war is over. She doesn’t believe it.
“We live because we have no choice. This is our country, and we have nowhere else to go,” she said. “But there is no peace.”