If it’s true that Israel has killed Mohammed Deif, perhaps we’ve reached a logical end point to the active phase of the Israel-Hamas War. The creator and leader of the al-Qassam Brigades, Deif is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape, and sexual assault in detention.” His 1990’s campaign of suicide bombings is believed responsible for the electoral defeat of Shimon Peres and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu, which heralded the failure of the Oslo Accords. He’s been the number one target of Israel intelligence for decades and survived seven assassination attempts. But most importantly, he and Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar are considered the architects of the October 7 massacre that instigated the war.

Ideally, for Israel, both Deif and Sinwar will pay for the massacre with their lives, but maybe one out of two will be sufficient to agree to a ceasefire. If Deif’s death is confirmed, it will be an obvious point for Netanyahu’s government to declare a victory of sorts that can satisfy hardliners in his governing coalition that a pause in fighting is justified.

I have my doubts that this coalition will ever see the merits in a ceasefire. Netanyahu is barely clinging to power and still faces criminal prosecution and an accounting for the mistakes that led to October 7. An active state of war is his best insurance against a day of reckoning, and it also hurts Joe Biden’s reelection chances. Netanyahu would clearly prefer that Donald Trump win November’s election.

Still, there’s pressure to bring the surviving hostages home, and a ceasefire plan is on the table. On Friday, President Biden announced that the framework of a deal had been agreed to by Israel and Hamas, but predictably Netanyahu immediately reneged by “trying to hold up an agreement with demands for an enforcement mechanism that would prevent Hamas operatives from returning to northern Gaza.”

But that was before Deif’s death was reported. Just maybe, Netanyahu will see fit to agree now.