Israel, Hamas, two years after the attack on October 7th, the world has transformed

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President Trump’s 20-point plan for a ceasefire in Gaza and the reconstruction campaign to follow are efforts to capitalize on drastic changes and enormous devastation as Hamas is now approaching its second anniversary in the wake of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.

Hamas, which was weakened on October 3rd, agreed to a part of the initiative that was announced in the White House, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on the side of the president. There were no other provisions detailing the future of Gaza, including some Hamas that Hamas has long rejected, rather than a response from an armed Palestinian group.

But the two years of turmoil and change in the region may have paved a new pathway to peace, some analysts say.

The attacks that claimed 1,200 lives on October 7th and the military response that devastated Gaza have changed the landscape of the region. This impact has contributed to the test of Trump’s hopes of expelling Syrian regime, setting up Iran’s nuclear program, isolation of Israel around the world, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I’m actually much more hopeful than I did a decade ago,” former US ambassador to Israel Michael Oren recently told USA Today’s “The Exterpt” podcast. Even after “two of the most difficult years in Israel’s history,” and the Middle East, he sees the potential to change regional geopolitics.

However, even Netanyahu said that it is not yet clear whether the next moment will bring about a ceasefire or a strengthened war, as the plan was revealed.

After Hamas’ reaction, Trump called on Israel to stop the bombing of Gaza, but he admitted in a video message that “the last words must be defeated with concrete.” History says the future negotiation process is not easy.

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Like the 2001 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the October 7 attack in Israel in 2023 began with a Palestinian enclave and left as deep as its date known.

Here are some of the things that have changed over the two years since then.

Gaza is no doubt

In Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says that over 66,000 people have been killed — about half of those women and children — and humanitarian agencies are now warning about hunger.

Over the past two years, almost all of Gaza’s estimated 2 million residents have been forced to flee their homes several times to avoid Israeli artillery fire. In the densely populated city of Gaza, satellite photos show that the entire building blocks are flat.

In August, we concluded that one in three people in Gaza went without food for days at a time.

Netanyahu denies the “starvestorm policy” against Gaza and accuss Hamas of diverting humanitarian assistance for its own purposes.

However, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, after returning from a congressional fact-finding trip, accused the Netanyahu government of pulling back humanitarian aid with the goal of forcing Palestinians to leave.

Israel is “in implementing a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza for Palestinians,” said Van Hollen, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a leading democratic voice on the conflict. “They use hunger as a weapon of war. ”

Israel is isolated

Even Netanyahu’s flight to New York for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in September highlighted how the devastation of Gaza eroded the Israeli world and his own status.

His plane clearly made efforts to avoid flying a country that could attempt to execute an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court last November on suspicion of war crimes.

Another indication of Israel’s new distance has announced that it will recognize the Palestinian state from its traditional allies, France, the UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium and others – Netanyahu is a step that Israel will never accept. When he won the podium, dozens of diplomats left protesting.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s fiery remarks include strike and protest

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s UN speech urged Hamas to release the hostages, streaming from speakers to Gaza, urging them to walk and protest.

Netanyahu remained rebellious.

At the United Nations, he told Hamas that if the hostages were not released, “Israel will drive you down.”

This area has been shaken

Other countries in the region have been affected by the uproar.

Israel says the air force against Syrian Hezbollah forces was one factor in the Assad regime’s unexpected decline in December 2024.

Meanwhile, Israel, which had been spurred by October 7, launched a long-term air attack at Iran’s nuclear facility in June. Trump ordered a US strike using bombs containing bunkers designed to destroy facilities hidden deep underground.

“After October 7th, we have learned that we are not going to wait for our enemy to surprise us again,” Israeli UN ambassador Danny Danon told NPR at the time.

Some hostages are still prisoners

Most of the 251 hostages photographed on October 7, 2023 were released or their bodies were returned under an earlier ceasefire deal. Israeli officials say about 20 living hostages remained bred in hopeless situations, with about 25 more likely to have died, However, their bodies have not been returned to their families.

Hostage families called for release at a demonstration outside the United Nations at the New York General Assembly in late September. Their red and yellow banners read, “48 hostages are waiting for the leader to make a courageous decision.”

Her mind was racing and she couldn’t breathe, Macabit Mayer, the aunt of hostages Ziv and Gali Berman, told reporters in protest. The twin brothers, reportedly alive in early 2025, captured their 28th birthday in September.

“The whole country wants to breathe again,” she said.