The ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war will temporarily ease regional diplomatic tensions and free Israeli military resources for other fronts, but a collapse in the coming phases would almost certainly reignite conflict with Hamas, cause diplomatic friction with regional powers and risk a wider escalation involving Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran. On Oct. 15, Israel and Hamas entered negotiations over the second phase of the U.S.-backed 20-point Gaza peace plan that they reached on Oct. 8 as tensions flared over Israel's accusations that Hamas was not complying with the first phase by not releasing enough bodies of Israeli hostages. On Oct. 15, Israel announced that while three bodies handed over by Hamas the previous day were those of Israeli hostages, a fourth body was not. Meanwhile, mediators began discussing the deployment of an initial 1,000-strong Palestinian police force, trained by Egypt and Jordan, to help manage security in Gaza under...
