As part of excavations of the caves in the Judean Desert—including those in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were famously found—archaeologists have uncovered a box of coins from the early 2nd century BCE, brought there by Jews fleeing the persecution of the Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The same persecution eventually prompted the uprising whose success the upcoming holiday of Hanukkah celebrates. Amanda Borschel-Dan writes:

As told in 1Maccabees 2:29, in the period prior to the Maccabean revolt, righteous men were exhorted to leave everything and flee to the desert. “At that time, many who sought righteousness and justice went to live in the desert.” Subsequently, while upholding the laws of Shabbat, they were slaughtered by the king’s forces.

During rescue excavations in May, a small, incredibly preserved wooden box holding fifteen silver tetradrachma coins was discovered in a cave in the Darageh Stream Nature Reserve. The coins were minted by Ptolemy VI, king of Egypt, and date to up to 170 BCE, which is just before Antiochus IV Epiphanes began handing down harsh measures against Jews’ freedom of worship. According to Eitan Klein of the Israel Antiquities Authority, which announced the find on Tuesday, the hoard was stashed by a fleeing Jew, who presumably subsequently died in the violence leading up to the Maccabean revolt.

At that time, the caves were very difficult to reach, which also shows the desperation [of the coins’ owner], said Klein. “Today, we can take a jeep. In that period, there was a path to the Dead Sea, but it was flanked by many unfriendly tribes and it was dangerous to walk in the middle of the desert.”

But the presumed Hasmonean supporters were not the only rebels to have used these caves. In the early 1950s, the French priest-cum-archaeologist Roland de Vaux discovered a cache of letters in a cave—one of which was penned by the leader of the 132–136 CE revolt Simon Bar-Kokhba.

Ron Ben-Yishai, reporting from a visit to IDF forces in the Gaza Strip, analyzes the state of the fighting, and “the persistent challenge of eradicating an entrenched enemy in a complex urban terrain.”

Hamas, sensing the war’s end, is mounting a final effort to inflict casualties. The IDF now controls 65 percent of Gaza’s territory operationally, with observation, fire dominance, and relative freedom of movement, alongside systematic tunnel destruction. . . . Major P, a reserve company commander, says, “It’s frustrating to hear at home that we’re stagnating. The public doesn’t get that if we stop, Hamas will recover.”

Senior IDF officers cite two reasons for the slow progress: meticulous care to protect hostages, requiring cautious movement and constant intelligence gathering, and avoiding heavy losses, with 22 soldiers killed since June.

Two-and-a-half of Hamas’s five brigades have been dismantled, yet a new hostage deal and IDF withdrawal could allow Hamas to regroup. . . . Hamas is at its lowest military and governing point since its founding, reduced to a fragmented guerrilla force. Yet, without complete disarmament and infrastructure destruction, it could resurge as a threat in years.

At the same time, Ben-Yishai observes, not everything hangs on the IDF:

According to the Southern Command chief Major General Yaron Finkelman, the IDF is close to completing its objectives. In classical military terms, “defeat” means the enemy surrenders—but with a jihadist organization, the benchmark is its ability to operate against Israel.

Despite [the IDF’s] battlefield successes, the broader strategic outcome—especially regarding the hostages—now hinges on decisions from the political leadership. “We’ve done our part,” said a senior officer. “We’ve reached a crossroads where the government must decide where it wants to go—both on the hostage issue and on Gaza’s future.”