GAZA — One year after a ceasefire agreement was officially reached to halt the devastating hostilities in the Gaza Strip, a coalition of more than 100 humanitarian, human rights, and civil society organizations has issued a stark warning that the truce exists in name only. According to the international and local agencies, Israeli forces have continued to kill and injure Palestinians on a daily basis, while severe restrictions on incoming aid, specialized equipment, and vital rebuilding materials have effectively trapped families in a continuous cycle of suffering and prevented any meaningful recovery.
Marking the grim one-year anniversary on October 9, 2026, the organizations emphasized that the relentless killing and systemic deprivation defining the current reality in Gaza must not be normalized under the misleading cover of a formal ceasefire agreement. The coalition’s joint statement underscores a year characterized by broken promises, persistent military operations, and a humanitarian catastrophe that continues to deteriorate as winter approaches.
Over the past twelve months, the ongoing military operations, daily airstrikes, and targeted shootings by Israeli forces have claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 327 children. In the wake of these relentless attacks, desperate families and exhausted rescue workers have been forced to recover hundreds of bodies from the rubble utilizing little more than their bare hands. This desperate measure is necessitated by ongoing Israeli restrictions that prohibit the entry of the heavy machinery and mechanical equipment urgently required to safely lift collapsed concrete and clear destroyed streets. Consequently, countless more bodies remain buried and unreachable beneath the ruins of neighborhoods that have been utterly erased.
Compounding the violence, the Israeli military has systematically expanded its footprint on the ground, pushing the so-called Yellow Line further into the interior of the Gaza Strip, well beyond the initial withdrawal boundaries stipulated in the original ceasefire agreement. This unilateral movement has effectively squeezed the Palestinian population into an increasingly restricted, highly congested, and overcrowded area, drastically shrinking the space available for human habitation, makeshift encampments, and basic survival.
Recent high-resolution satellite imagery starkly illustrates the staggering scale of the devastation inflicted by Israeli forces across the enclave. Entire neighborhoods have been entirely reduced to rubble, residential homes flattened into dust, and vast swaths of vital agricultural land methodically razed. Comprehensive assessments indicate that more than 80% of all structures throughout the Gaza Strip have sustained varying degrees of damage, with approximately two-thirds of those buildings completely destroyed.
For the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians, the humanitarian outlook grows increasingly dire as another winter approaches. Families continue to endure harsh conditions living in fragile tents, makeshift plastic shelters, or partially damaged, structurally unsafe homes, bracing themselves for a fourth consecutive winter completely exposed to biting cold, freezing winds, and seasonal flooding. Demographic vulnerabilities compound the crisis; nearly one in four households across Gaza is now headed by a single woman, with these specific families facing an exponentially higher risk of enduring unsafe, inadequate, and utterly exposed living conditions.
With virtually nowhere safe left to turn, desperate families have increasingly taken the catastrophic risk of sheltering inside structurally compromised buildings that face an imminent threat of collapse. The lethal consequences of this housing shortage were laid bare in September, when a severely damaged multi-story building abruptly collapsed in Gaza City, instantly killing 21 people, including 12 children.
The systematic restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities have similarly crippled Gaza’s essential public services and healthcare infrastructure. Not a single one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals is currently operating at full capacity. Essential medicines, advanced medical equipment, and the fuel necessary to power hospital generators remain critically scarce. The human cost of these shortages is catastrophic: vulnerable newborn babies housed in incubators, patients requiring continuous oxygen or intensive care, elderly individuals, and people suffering from chronic illnesses or life-changing combat injuries face acute, life-threatening risks as specialized treatment, vital rehabilitation, and assistive services remain severely restricted or entirely unavailable.
Furthermore, a staggering backlog of more than 18,500 patients—including at least 4,000 children—remains trapped and urgently requires critical medical evacuation to facilities outside the besieged enclave. Tragically, more than 1,000 patients have already died while waiting for authorization to leave.
Simultaneously, food insecurity has reached catastrophic proportions. An estimated 1.4 million people across the Gaza Strip are facing crisis-level hunger or worse as the year draws to a close. This acute food crisis is compounded by a total collapse of water and sanitation infrastructure, where unsafe drinking water and damaged sewage networks continue to drive the rapid spread of preventable waterborne diseases.
Civil society leaders and humanitarian executives have raised their voices to condemn the international community’s failure to enforce the terms of the agreement and protect the civilian population.
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a board member of the Palestinian NGO Network, highlighted the immense pressure facing local institutions on the ground. "Palestinian organisations are responding to immense needs under Israeli occupation with destroyed offices, displaced staff, and shrinking budgets," Abu Ramadan said. "Local and national organisations are first responders and will remain, but we need to be protected. Governments must act to end Israel’s attacks and restrictions on our work and donors must direct flexible funding to meet the needs."
Echoing these urgent sentiments, Inger Ashing, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children, pointed directly to the devastating impact the ongoing violence continues to inflict on the younger generation. "A ceasefire is meaningless if children are still being killed and families are still unable to rebuild their lives," Ashing stated. "Since the ceasefire was announced, nearly one child has been killed every day. Families remain trapped in a devastating cycle of loss and deprivation, unable to recover. Governments that backed this agreement must use their influence to stop the killing and ensure children can access food, healthcare, shelter and education. Gaza’s children have a right to safety and a future. Governments have the power to help secure both, and they must use it."
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, expressed profound dismay over the lack of progress achieved over the past year. "It is utterly shameful that a full year after the ceasefire was signed, so little has improved for Palestinians in Gaza," Egeland said. "Families are still being forced to make impossible choices, between sheltering in damaged and dangerous buildings or living in tents facing unbearable temperatures. Israeli restrictions are still preventing the required equipment or materials, which are the only ways for communities to begin rebuilding their lives. As winter approaches, all governments must take concrete steps to ensure that the flow of aid increases without hindrance, so that Palestinians can finally begin the vast task of recovery and reconstruction."
The cumulative evidence gathered over the past year reveals an unmistakable and grim pattern. Families continue to be killed in their homes and makeshift tents; children continue to perish from preventable illnesses and malnutrition; and the entire landscape of Gaza remains heavily littered with dangerous, unexploded ordnance. Countless homes lie buried beneath rubble that local populations lack the heavy machinery to clear, while essential humanitarian aid remains blocked from reaching the people who need it most.
Human rights advocates argue that this ongoing reality falls far short of what any legitimate ceasefire was designed to deliver, mirroring the exact systemic conditions that previously led the United Nations Commission of Inquiry—in reports issued in September 2025 and June 2026—to conclude that Israel has committed acts of genocide. Civil society leaders maintain that the legal and moral responsibilities of the international community cannot be considered fulfilled simply by securing an agreement written on paper.
Agnès Callmard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, underscored the critical need for global accountability and adherence to international jurisprudence. "Accountability cannot be swept under the rubble," Callmard said. "The recovery and future of Gaza cannot be separated from a framework grounded in international law, justice, and the rights of victims. The persistent failure to hold Israel accountable and press Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s binding orders continues to fuel the atrocity crimes on a mass scale against Palestinians."