In the wake of a terror strike Thursday, Israel is bracing for more violence during the month-long marking of Ramadan. Israelis, meanwhile, are increasingly contemplating a return to Gaza fighting in an effort to eradicate Hamas. The fate of 58 hostages, including 24 presumed living, is in the balance. 

Twelve Israelis were injured Thursday in the central town of Karkur when a terrorist rammed pedestrians with his car. The terrorist, identified as 53-year-old Jamil Ziyud, from the West Bank’s Jenin area, was shot dead by cops after he attempted to stab them with a screwdriver. 

As the first phase of a 42-day Gaza cease-fire ends on Saturday, Israelis are hoping to secure the release of more hostages without moving on to the second phase, in which Hamas anticipates a formal ending of the war. Israelis are increasingly convinced that war would resume after all hostages, or at least as many as possible, are released.

Eventually, the military “will go back to fighting at Gaza,” the founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, Amir Avivi, tells the Sun. A retired brigadier-general, he says the Israel Defense Force, under a new command structure, is preparing for an eventual redeployment to recapture Gaza and end Hamas’s presence there once and for all. 

According to the original agreement that was reached on January 19, Israel was due to complete its evacuation of Gaza by Saturday, at the conclusion of the first phase of the deal. The IDF was to leave a narrow area at the Strip’s border with Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor. Israel, though, is saying troops will remain there.

“If we had withdrawn from the Philadelphi Corridor within these 42 days, it would have been flooded with weapons,” Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said Thursday. He also said that during the cease-fire period, Hamas was attempting to attack IDF troops and communities near Gaza and in the West Bank. He added that the military is preparing to facilitate voluntary emigration of Gazans out of the Strip. 

As Prime Minister Netanyahu sends a team to Doha for further negotiations, the Israelis are “pressing to extend the cease-fire, but in no way talk about phase two,” a diplomatic analyst at Kan News, Gili Cohen, says.

An extension of the first phase could entail additional Hamas hostage releases in phases, for which it would receive hundreds of terrorists held in Israeli prisons and aid to Gaza, including heavy machinery and temporary housing for northern Gaza residents. Israel, though, is wary of agreeing to end the war as long as Hamas remains in Gaza. 

President Trump’s instructions are “to find a solution to this,” according to his top mediator, Steve Witkoff. Unlike President Biden’s negotiators, Mr. Witkoff seems in alignment with Israel’s position. “There’s no room for Hamas in Gaza, in the West Bank,” he said Wednesday. “You can see from their actions that they haven’t earned their right to be there.”

The White House position has convinced Israelis that they now have the upper hand. An unidentified official tells press outlets that Hamas now has three options, a Times of Israel correspondent, Lazar Berman, reports: The terror group can accept Israel’s demands to disarm, go into exile, and give up rule; it might keep releasing hostages and maintain a cease-fire; or it can go back to war. 

“The official notes that the war will be different this time: A new defense minister, new chief of staff, and full backing from the White House,” Mr. Berman wrote on X. Similarly, General Avivi told the Sun that the new IDF chief of staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, comes in “with renewed spirit and determination to win this war.” 

During the cease-fire in Gaza, IDF elite units have been relocated to the northern West Bank, which has in recent years become a stronghold of armed Hamas men and other terrorist organizations intent on Israel’s destruction.  

Thursday’s terror attack follows a major failed attempt last week to bomb four buses near Tel Aviv. An alert passenger saw something, said something, and averted a terrorist attack that could have exacted a high number of casualties. The well-coordinated attack originated in the northern West Bank. The IDF will intensify activities there, Mr. Katz said Thursday. 

Israeli police, meanwhile, are on high alert as the holy Ramadan month begins Friday night. Preparations are especially intense at Jerusalem’s holy mosques. “I appeal to all Israeli Muslims: fast, mark Ramadan, and end it at that,” Israel’s police commissioner, Danny Levy, told reporters at the site of Thursday’s terrorist car ramming.    

Hamas has dubbed its murderous attack of October 7, 2023, the “al Aqsa flood,” highlighting the centrality of religious symbolism in its ideology that centers around the idea of ending Jewish presence in Israel.

At the same time, the Palestinian Authority president is vowing to continue paying stipends to terrorists “even if we have one penny left.” As several plans are contemplated for the war’s “day after” in Gaza, Israelis are therefore increasingly opposed to a PA takeover there.