Opinion | Nothing Is 'Over,' Not in the Gaza Strip nor in the West Bank

Palestinians stand near a burning car reportedly set alight by Israeli settlers attempting to disrupt them harvesting olives near the occupied West Bank village of Turmus Ayya near Ramallah, Sunday.Credit: Hazem Bader/AFP

Even though violent incidents, barring casualties, still occur in Gaza now that the cease-fire is implemented, and even if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners would like to keep the deal going, their patron in the White House continues holding them back.

What's becoming obvious is the sheer scale of the devastation in the Gaza Strip. The October 7 massacre is imprinted into Israel's national DNA. Its memory will remain for generations, especially for the families of the murdered, the wounded and the hostages, who lived through the trauma in its full force.

But now that all the living hostages have returned home, is there anyone that actually cares about what's happening in Gaza and to its people, or do most Israelis still believe there are no innocents there? Will there still be protesters calling to build in Gaza?

They aren't calling for "rehabilitating" Gaza, since there's nothing left to rehabilitate, as everything is destroyed, and everything must begin from scratch. Or will the protesters prefer to stay silent and look away, shrug their shoulders and say: let them burn, let them fight each other. After all, it's easier to believe that's how things are in Gaza – that there's no one to talk to and nothing to save.

A family walks along the road to Gaza City near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, this month.Credit: Eyad Baba/AFP

Will we return to the same equation Israel has always preferred – that as long as Gaza is consumed by internal strife, fighting over the crumbs of the ruins they now inhabit, Israelis can breathe easy? Is perpetual chaos in Gaza, and no less in the West Bank, truly Israel's aspiration, erasing any hope for the rise of a stable Palestinian leadership that enjoys the trust of its people?

Will Israel display its "generosity" only to serve one goal: keeping Gaza in a state of collapse, the West Bank fragmented and all hopes buried?

The children in Gaza who survived the past two years of war will grow up in this reality – a generation scarred by trauma, left with nothing but hatred and a deep distrust in the possibility of a normal life. The lucky few may find a way out, perhaps by leaving for other countries. On that, Israel will agree; after all, it has already set up an authority to help Gazans "leave voluntarily."

It must be remembered: Israel's ambitions aren't confined to Gaza, they also include the West Bank. The government is operating on all fronts. In the West Bank, Palestinians continue to be suffocated, humiliated and detained at Israel Defense Forces checkpoints, subjected to endless acts of daily control, while the state turns a blind eye, or even supports, settler violence and pogroms.

Any olive harvest will become a regular monthly battleground. Reduction of movement, repression and trampling of rights – this will remain the order of the day under a brutal Israeli military regime and a Palestinian Authority whose aging leader, in less than a month, will turn ninety years old.

IDF soldiers behind a masked Israeli settler, hurling stones at Palestinians who gathered for the annual olive harvest season in the village of Beita, near Nablus, West Bank, earlier this month.Credit: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP

It seems that Israelis don't care. The hostages are back, so life can return to normal. In next year's elections Israelis will argue about who's more right-wing and who's less, who'll form the next government, but preferably without any Arab parties involved.

They're disqualified from the very beginning because you can't rely on them in the Knesset. We'll disqualify their candidates, suppress their votes and silence their voices. Who will take to the streets for them? Who will say "this won't go through?" Israel is a democracy, sure, but there are lines you just don't cross.

For most Israelis, it's all over once the hostages are back. One can breathe. One can forget. Trump declared peace. Who cares that the declaration is hollow? Why bother too much with post-war Gaza?

We're already in it.

Everything's fine now. Except for what isn't. Beneath this calm the ground is trembling. Anyone who thinks a war can be ended on only one side of the fence will discover that indifference will come back like a boomerang, and the country will burn here too.