According to the biblical narrative, Jewish history in the Land of Israel begins with Abraham, who would have lived in the middle part of the third millennium BCE. Excavations of the area often yield findings from much earlier eras. Gavriel Fiske reports on one:

Israeli archaeologists have reconstructed a 6,000-year-old vessel made of elephant ivory, which had been shattered in antiquity and preserved inside a basalt stone container for millennia, the Israel Antique Authority announced Tuesday.

The rare item was discovered in 2020 at Horvat Raqiq, an archaeological site near Beersheba in southern Israel, during infrastructure work to lay a water pipe. . . . The vessel has been dated to the Chalcolithic period (4500–3500 BCE), also known as the Copper Age, a time in human development—between the agricultural Neolithic revolution and the later Bronze Age—that saw increased cultural development, the smelting of copper, and expanded trade networks.

Scientists believe that by analyzing the chemical makeup of the ivory, they can gather information about the diet of the elephant it came from, and thus determine where the elephant lived. (A short video about the item can be found at the link below.)

Israel’s goals of freeing the hostages and defeating Hamas (the latter necessary to prevent further hostage taking) are to some extent contradictory, since Yahya Sinwar, the ruler of the Gaza Strip, will only turn over hostages in exchange for concessions. But Jacob Nagel remains convinced that Jerusalem should continue to pursue both goals:

Only consistent military pressure on Hamas can lead to the hostages’ release, either through negotiation or military operation. There’s little chance of reaching a deal with Hamas using current approaches, including the latest Egyptian proposal. Israeli concessions would only encourage further pressure from Hamas.

There is no incentive for Hamas to agree to a deal, especially since it believes it can achieve its full objectives without one. Unfortunately, many contribute to this belief, mainly from outside of Israel, but also from within.

Recent months saw Israel mistakenly refraining from entering Rafah for several reasons. Initially, the main [reason was to try] to negotiate a deal with Hamas. However, as it became clear that Hamas was uninterested, and its only goal was to return to its situation before October 7—where Hamas and its leadership control Gaza, Israeli forces are out, and there are no changes in the borders—the deal didn’t mature.