Gaza — One year after a ceasefire agreement was officially reached, more than 100 humanitarian, human rights, and civil society organizations have issued a stark warning that the truce exists in name only. According to aid groups operating in the occupied Palestinian territory, Israeli forces have continued to kill and injure Palestinians on a daily basis, while crippling restrictions on humanitarian aid, heavy equipment, and rebuilding materials have left families entirely unable to recover from years of devastation.
The organizations emphasized that the ongoing loss of life, widespread deprivation, and systemic destruction in Gaza must not be normalized under the protective cover of a nominal ceasefire agreement.
Over the past year, relentless Israeli military operations, airstrikes, and targeted shootings have claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 327 children. Families and local rescue workers have been forced to recover hundreds of decomposing bodies from deep beneath the rubble using little more than their bare hands. This desperate measure is necessary because Israeli authorities continue to enforce strict bans on the entry of heavy machinery, cranes, and excavation equipment required to safely lift concrete slabs and reach victims. Consequently, an untold number of bodies remain buried and unreachable beneath the ruins of their former neighborhoods.
Compounding the violence, the Israeli military has expanded its footprint by pushing the so-called Yellow Line further into the interior of the Gaza Strip, extending well beyond the original withdrawal boundary established under the terms of the ceasefire agreement. This unilateral expansion has squeezed the remaining Palestinian population into an increasingly narrow, highly confined, and severely overcrowded geographic zone.
Recent high-resolution satellite imagery reveals the staggering scale of destruction wrought by Israeli forces across the enclave. Entire neighborhoods have been systematically reduced to powder, residential homes completely flattened, and vital agricultural lands systematically razed. Statistics compiled by humanitarian agencies indicate that more than 80 percent of all structures across the Gaza Strip have sustained varying degrees of damage, with approximately two-thirds of the total built environment completely destroyed.
As another harsh winter approaches, hundreds of thousands of displaced families continue to languish in makeshift tents, tattered tarps, or severely damaged, structurally unsound homes, facing a fourth consecutive winter completely exposed to freezing temperatures, biting winds, and torrential flooding. The demographic toll of the conflict is acutely visible in households across the territory, where nearly one in four families is now headed by a woman. These female-headed households face exponentially higher risks of living in completely unsafe, inadequate, or entirely exposed shelters.
For a population trapped in an enclave with sealed borders, finding a safe haven is virtually impossible. Many families have been forced to take shelter in war-damaged buildings that are perpetually at risk of catastrophic structural collapse. The deadly consequences of this housing crisis were underscored in September, when a severely damaged multi-story building in Gaza City suddenly collapsed, instantly killing 21 people, including 12 children.
The daily realities faced by local communities are underscored by the testimonies of leaders from major international and domestic humanitarian organizations, who are calling for immediate, concerted global intervention to halt the cycle of suffering.
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a board member of the Palestinian NGO Network, detailed the extraordinary challenges faced by local aid providers 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 provide direct, flexible funding to meet the needs."
Echoing these concerns, Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children, highlighted the devastating impact of the ongoing violence on the youngest generation.
"A ceasefire is meaningless if children are still being killed and families are still unable to rebuild their lives," Ashing said. "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."
The systematic restrictions imposed by Israeli authorities have similarly devastated essential public services, pushing Gaza’s civic infrastructure past the brink of collapse. Not a single one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals is currently fully functioning. Essential medicines, surgical equipment, diagnostic tools, and fuel remain critically scarce across all medical facilities. Newborn babies housed in vulnerable incubators, critical patients requiring uninterrupted oxygen supply or intensive care, older adults, and individuals living with disabilities or life-changing injuries face acute, life-threatening risks as specialized treatment, rehabilitation, and assistive services remain severely restricted or entirely unavailable.
The medical crisis is further compounded by the blockade on outbound medical transfers. More than 18,500 patients, including at least 4,000 children, remain stranded and desperately in need of specialized medical evacuation abroad. More than 1,000 patients have already died while waiting for permits that never arrived.
Simultaneously, the broader population faces catastrophic food insecurity. Through the end of the year, 1.4 million people are grappling with crisis-level hunger or worse, struggling to secure even a single daily meal. At the same time, the complete destruction of municipal water networks and sanitation infrastructure continues to fuel the rapid spread of entirely preventable waterborne diseases.
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, expressed profound condemnation over the lack of progress 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."
One year on, human rights advocates emphasize that the observable pattern on the ground is unmistakable. Families continue to be killed in targeted strikes and shelling, children continue to succumb to entirely preventable illnesses and environmental exposure, and the landscape remains dangerously littered with unexploded ordnance. Homes lie buried beneath insurmountable rubble that local authorities lack the heavy machinery to clear, and life-saving humanitarian aid continues to be blocked from reaching the people who need it most.
Aid agencies point out that these grim conditions directly mirror the systemic factors that led the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, in formal reports issued in September 2025 and June 2026, to conclude that Israel has committed acts of genocide. Civil society leaders stress that the legal and moral responsibility of the international community cannot be considered fulfilled merely by brokering an agreement on paper.
Agnes Callmard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, underscored the absolute necessity of holding perpetrators accountable under international law.
"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."