Gaza’s “New Normal”: A Truce Without Peace

Jerusalem, anyone looking at Gaza on Tuesday could easily believe the ceasefire had already collapsed.

In the shattered city of Rafah, Israeli forces came under grenade and sniper fire, according to the military, killing one Israeli soldier. In response, Israel unleashed a wave of punishing airstrikes across the Strip strikes that, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, killed more than 100 people.

For a moment, it seemed as if the U.S. brokered ceasefire had fallen apart. But by Wednesday morning, both Hamas and Israel declared that they remained committed to the deal.

It was the second violent flare up since the ceasefire began on October 10. And, much like the fighting nine days later when two Israeli soldiers and at least 36 Palestinians were killed the latest eruption was short lived. Within hours, the guns fell silent again.

This has become Gaza’s new normal: a fragile peace that can vanish in an instant, only to be pieced back together a day later. A truce that holds but never really heals.

Between all-out war and true peace lies this uneasy limbo. Palestinians live in constant fear of the next strike, the next explosion that might take everything from them again. Meanwhile, Israel remains perched on the edge of renewed conflict, its soldiers and citizens never fully exhaling.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted last week that the ceasefire was “not going to be a linear journey.” It would have “ups and downs, twists and turns,” he said. Vice President JD Vance echoed him, calling the incidents “little skirmishes here and there.” Yet both insisted that the truce would endure somehow.

This deal exists largely because of the sheer willpower of President Donald Trump, who pushed Israel to hold back while U.S. mediators pressured Hamas to agree. But it will take continued American involvement to keep this delicate arrangement from collapsing, especially in the next phase one that calls for an international force in Gaza and the disarmament of Hamas.

The ceasefire’s fragility reflects the gulf between what’s been achieved and what remains unfinished. The fighting has mostly stopped. Hamas has released the remaining hostages the living and more than half of the deceased. Israeli forces have pulled back to the so called “yellow line,” marking their first withdrawal point inside Gaza.

But Gaza now lives in a suspended state between a halted war and a peace that still feels impossibly far away. Israeli troops still occupy more than half of the territory. And as both sides cling to a ceasefire that can shatter at any moment, ordinary people are left to survive in the shadow of uncertainty.

A truce, yes, but not peace.

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