At some point on Sunday evening, the Hamas leadership began to realize that it should seek a ceasefire with Israel. It may be that Israel’s massive bombardments made the difference — the strikes on Hamas ammunition stores; the targeted assassination of Hamed Hamdan al-Khodari, the man responsible for channelling funds from Iran (according to the IDF and the Shin Bet); the destruction of several multi-story buildings in the heart of Gaza. All of this gradually prompted the organization’s heads to internalize the repercussions of continuing the fighting, and all this at a time when Hamas’s Gaza chief, Yihya Sinwar, was in Cairo, disconnected from the Strip.

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