Cracks are showing in Hamas's grip on Gaza as the IDF plot their campaign for the south

WAR can all of sudden turn battle commanders into fastidious lawyers when it comes to terms. Protesters marching in the streets of London may be calling for a ceasefire, but that is not what either side in the Middle East wants to call the minimum four-day halt they have just agreed.

- Ben Judah

Hamas calls it a "truce" - which will see 150 women and teenage prisoners released. Israel is calling it a "pause" - returning home 50 children and mothers. Brokered by the United States and Qatar, each side's respective most trusted patron, it includes the option for Hamas to extend - whatever you call it for the price of 10 hostages a day. Just don't call it a ceasefire, please.

This uncharacteristic verbal precision, from both sides, tells us something. Neither wants anyone to mistake what they see as a temporary "truce" - or rather, "pause" for the end of the war. For Bibi Netanyahu and the IDF, this is because it vowed after October 7 to rescue all its roughly 240 hostages and "destroy" Hamas.