Two months ago, euphoria washed over the people of both Israel and Gaza in celebration of a U.S.-brokered truce that halted two brutal years of war. But today, amid renewed sporadic fighting, the United States and Israel are at odds over how to implement the peace treaty’s next phase.

Critically, that phase will require Hamas to disarm, a move that the militant Islamic group, committed to armed struggle, is refusing to make.

In the face of that rebuff, Washington appears to favor delaying disarmament, or watering down its provisions, according to Israeli media reports, to focus instead on reconstructing the Gaza Strip, wide stretches of which were flattened by Israeli bombs and artillery during the war.

Why We Wrote This

Making peace between Israel and Hamas was never going to be easy,

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