A ceasefire in Gaza would now suit Israel and Iran

As the number killed in the Israel-Hamas war exceeds some 40,000 people, it's at least worth noting that some of Israel's most potent enemies in Hamas and Hezbollah have met their end not through some indiscriminate bombing raid or the denial of food and medical aid but via intelligence-led assassination.

Two such figures to have met their end in recent days are Fuad Shukr, a senior Hezbollah commander killed by an airstrike in Beirut, and Ismail Haniyeh, a former Hamas prime minister of Gaza and the terror organisation’s most senior official taken out since the war started, who was hit by an “airborne guided projectile” while visiting Tehran, according to Iranian state media. Perhaps if Israel had followed such an approach in its relentless search for Hamas leaders and the hostages taken in the 7 October atrocities, many innocent lives would have been saved.

Now, Israel and the world wait to see what the latest in these titfor-tat moves will be. Shukr, after all, was revenge for the Hezbollah bombing which killed 12 civilians in the Israeliannexed Golan Heights; Haniyeh was simply another of the many Hamas leaders Israel pledged to eliminate in its current war.