A third ceasefire, in the north, has unraveled, and residents of the embattled border towns remain very much at risk. You read about it in the headlines. You know people serving in Lebanon, or maybe Syria, or maybe Rafah in Gaza, or Tulkarem in the West Bank. They are all sons, daughters, fathers, brothers, friends. You see the pictures of the fallen soldiers, the ones on their fifth or sixth round of reserve duty, and you know the danger is real. You know the borderland isn\u2019t safe.<\/p>\n
But you don\u2019t go there, and it all feels very far away.<\/p>\n
In post-October 7 Israel, is this peacetime? Naftali Bennett, the man promising a fresh start if he is elected prime minister, was once fond of saying<\/a> that \u201cpeace in the Middle East is a lack of war.\u201d And while there is conflict in Lebanon and the West Bank, for you, as for many Israelis, \u201clack of war\u201d seems very apt.<\/p>\n But those who specialize in trauma say it is not enough. Merav Roth, a clinical psychologist and trauma expert at the University of Haifa, said that Israelis living in the purgatory of a ceasefire, with no guarantee that the war is over, have not been given the space or closure to begin healing from nearly three years of conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is that the whole population has been in a situation of continuous collective trauma. It\u2019s been more than two-and-a-half years when you\u2019ve been in an on-and-off war,\u201d said Roth, who is a co-founder of First Line Med, a group providing mental health care to victims of the October 7 attack. (She is also the sister of Yair Lapid, the Knesset\u2019s opposition leader.)<\/p>\n \u201cLots and lots of our mental energy is going to waste just hanging on,\u201d she added. \u201cHanging on in a life-and-death situation, a life-and-death threat that hasn\u2019t stopped hanging over our heads. And you\u2019re like a marionette, where they say, \u2018Now you\u2019re in mortal danger.\u2019 \u2018Now you\u2019re not.\u2019 \u2018Now you are.\u2019 \u2018Now you\u2019re not.\u2019<\/p>\n \t Israel has confronted situations like this before. The Second Intifada died down by 2005 or so, but while there were diplomatic efforts at de-escalation, it\u2019s not as if Israel signed a peace agreement with the suicide bombers or the terror groups directing them. Even the period after the 1967 Six Day War, remembered as a time of national euphoria, was mostly taken up by the War of Attrition on the Egyptian border in which hundreds of Israelis were killed. The shattering debacle of the Yom Kippur War came not far behind.<\/p>\n But just as October 7 was unprecedented, so too is the national limbo that has followed. Two years after the Hamas-led attack, a poll showed<\/a> that most Israeli Jews felt the country\u2019s security standing was the same or better than it had been on October 6, 2023. In other words, most do not seem to feel that the country is in danger of imminent destruction.<\/p>\n War, however, still feels constantly just beyond the horizon, for Israelis as well as for those on the barrel end of Israel\u2019s silenced guns. Hamas, meant to be defeated in the post-October 7 war, still controls half the territory and most of the people in Gaza, who themselves are crowded into tent cities and ruins, unable to truly rebuild. Reports of Hezbollah\u2019s defeat in Lebanon also turned out to have been greatly exaggerated, leaving the villages of southern Lebanon desolate, as Israel battles that terror group\u2019s efforts to regain strength.<\/p>\n And few people can really say whether or when the Iran war will restart. Our culture of 24-hour news, incessant push alerts, and a US president who conducts diplomacy via social media bombast surely have not helped a sense of postwar normalcy take hold.<\/p>\n \t If this isn\u2019t exactly war, it also isn\u2019t peace. The national adrenaline that fueled a mass mobilization of reserve troops and volunteer efforts in the weeks after the October 7 attack has since cooled off. But the fighting that was unleashed is still on a low burn.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone here would say, you know, you shouldn\u2019t be jumping if you hear a sound that sounds like a siren, because actually, we\u2019re not able to guarantee, or even close to guarantee, that these sirens and these threats and the rockets aren\u2019t going to start up again,\u201d said Anna Harwood-Gross, a senior researcher at METIV Israel Psychotrauma Center and Ariel University\u2019s psychology department.<\/p>\n Harwood-Gross described \u201ca sense of hopelessness, a sense of emotional exhaustion \u2014 and that we saw go up after the initial attacks of October 7 and remain elevated throughout the period.\u201d<\/p>\n There are, of course, moments of relief and joy. Israelis\u2019 long, grassroots struggle to return the hostages taken by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7 achieved its goal, albeit belatedly, and after much pain, death, and anguish. Since US President Donald Trump hit pause on the Iran war, the rhythms of day-to-day life in most of Israel have resumed. Schools and workplaces are open. So is the airport \u2014 at least for Israeli carriers and, soon, a couple others. Birthright trips are back.<\/p>\n Heading into the summer, Israelis appear to be grabbing the opportunity to enjoy life when they can, the core of the country\u2019s vaunted ethos of resilience. Roth said that\u2019s a manifestation of what Sigmund Freud called the \u201clife instinct.\u201d But she said that while it is heartening, it is also troubling.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not supposed to feel like a miracle that you\u2019re going out to dinner with your family,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s supposed to feel, actually, like something normal, but it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n She added, however, \u201cIt\u2019s profound, and you can see it very clearly, that people\u2026 every moment you give them and every chance you give them, they\u2019ll take it to do good, and to live well.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/F260401FFFF303-1-640x400.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n\t\tIsraelis celebrate the Passover Seder in an underground central Israel parking lot used as a public shelter during the ongoing war with Iran and Hezbollah, April 1, 2026. (Flash90)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Urim-Renovation_One-Heart-courtesy-640x400.jpg\")
<\/a>
\n\t\tOne Heart (Lev Ehad) volunteers perform renovation work on Kibbutz Urim, summer 2024. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/soldiers-640x400.jpg\")
<\/a>