On August 26, 2019, no one in Israel mentioned the significance of the date

On August 26, 2014, the 2014 Hamas-Israel war ended. But when August 26, 2019 came--the fifth anniversary of the end of that war--no one in Israel thought to mention that fact. No one in Israel said, 'Hey, look! it's been five years since the fighting ended!'

Part of the reason for this silence is that many in Israel consider that that war never ended. Certainly, Hamas never surrendered. It never gave up its calls to destroy Israel. It never stopped its calls to kill Jews. It never stopped firing rockets at us. 

Look at the facts. For the 40 months between August 27, 2014-December 31, 2017, Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel. A month hardly went by without at least something being fired from Gaza into Israel. 

Granted, the total number of rockets fired at Israel was low--perhaps 100 over those 40 months (here). But to those living in the targeted areas, those rockets meant remaining on a war footing. 

Those citizens were not in  a 'peace' situation. They still had to run for their lives into shelters every time a siren went off.  

Then, in 2018, everything changed. During that year alone, Hamas and its Israel-hating "friends" in Gaza fired over 1,000 rockets and mortars into Israel (here).

In 2019, Hamas and its 'partners' in Gaza have continued to fire at us--some 600 rockets into Israel in May alone (here). Most of these 600 rockets fell in less than a single 48 hour period in early May. At that moment, it certainly felt to many like war with Gaza had suddenly re-erupted.

Then again, since March, 2018, Hamas has organized riots and violence at Gaza-Israel border points almost every week-end. Those riots involved as many as 30,000 Gazans burning tires, using slingshots to shoot stones, and throwing fire-bombs and hand grenades into Israel. 

That violence also included a new weapon: lofting fire-balloons into Israel. These fire-balloons have destroyed thousands of acres of farmland and nature preserves in Israel. They are weapons of war that constitute a war crime (here)--one that has been persistently ignored by the UN (ibid).

To many in Israel, these border riots, along with the rockets and continuing terror attacks against Jews in Israel all have the look and feel of a low-burning (no pun intended) but continuing war against Israel. It's a dangerously irresponsible strategy that has the potential to flare up to the real thing at a moment's notice.

Hamas doesn't care. It attacks despite the risk of greater conflict with Israel.

This is exactly why nobody in Israel sees reason  to comment on "the five-year anniversary date of the 2014 ceasefire" between Hamas and Israel. That war hasn't really ended. To borrow a 21st-century phrase, the feeling here in Israel is that that  2014 "ceasefire" has been nothing more than 'fake news'.

Instead, there is the feel in Israel today of a war-about-to-break-out. For example, instead of reading this week in Israel's news outlets about the fifth-year anniversary of the 2014 ceasefire, the only talk here is about how the fear of war now "skyrockets" (here).

Israel's headlines for this anniversary moment (August 25-26, 2018) didn't speak of peace. They spoke of 'escalation' (here), forest fires of unknown origin (here)--many suspected Arab terror--and about even more rocket launches from Gaza landing in Israel (here). Our headlines were about anti-Jewish terror (here) and about those who suffer from that terror (here). Our headlines weren't about 'peace' or peace-talks or 'ongoing calm' at the Israel and Gaza border. 

In addition, during this same 'anniversary news cycle', the President of Lebanon called Israeli actions to defend itself a 'declaration of war' (here). Iran yet again rattled its anti-Israel war-sabre (here). Politicians running for the upcoming September 17, 2019 national elections talked openly of 'escalation', not peace (here).

Five years after the last Gaza-Israel war, no one talks of putting that conflict behind us. Instead, the talk is about war. With such talk, why would anyone feel inclined to remark upon something (the supposed end of fighting five years ago) that never happened?