New Delhi, Oct. 22 -- Exchanges start, gates wobble, and a new arithmetic-trucks, fuel, clinic hours-decides if the promise holds.

Gaza City -the promise of quiet arrived in whispers before dawn and then, suddenly, as a chorus. In Gaza's battered neighborhoods, families murmured that the guns might go silent. In Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, the electronic counter that had ticked away the days since October 7 disappeared, replaced by a simple conviction: loved ones were coming home. The first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, pushed by Washington and Arab mediators, has unlocked exchanges of people and pledges, but it has not yet delivered certainty. After two years of deadlock and grief, the war's long tail is now a tangle ...