GAZA — One year after the brokering of a Gaza ceasefire agreement, more than 100 humanitarian, human rights, and civil society organizations have warned that the pact exists in name only. According to international aid groups, ongoing military operations by Israeli forces continue to claim Palestinian lives daily, while severe restrictions on aid, heavy equipment, and rebuilding materials prevent families from beginning the path toward recovery.
Marking the grim anniversary on October 9, 2026, coalition agencies emphasized that the widespread killing, destruction, and systemic deprivation in the Gaza Strip must not be normalized under the protective cover of a nominal ceasefire agreement. Over the past twelve months, intense military actions, including ongoing airstrikes, targeted shootings, and ground operations, have resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians, a toll that includes at least 327 children.
Rescue workers and desperate family members have continually been forced to recover hundreds of bodies from beneath the rubble using their bare hands. This grim reality persists because Israeli authorities heavily restrict the entry of the essential machinery, cranes, and heavy excavation equipment required to safely reach collapsed structures. Consequently, many more victims remain buried and unreachable beneath the concrete debris of flattened neighborhoods.
Compounding the violence, the Israeli military has advanced the so-called Yellow Line further into the interior of Gaza, pushing well beyond the initial withdrawal boundaries established under the ceasefire terms. This territorial creep has squeezed the surviving Palestinian population into an increasingly small, densely packed, and overcrowded geographic zone, drastically shrinking safe spaces and intensifying the humanitarian strain.
Local Responders Face Devastating Pressures
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a board member of the Palestinian NGO Network, detailed the overwhelming challenges faced by local aid agencies operating under the immense strain of the ongoing occupation.
"Palestinian organizations are responding to immense needs under Israeli occupation with destroyed offices, displaced staff, and shrinking budgets," Abu Ramadan said. "Local and national organizations 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."
The daily toll on civilians remains devastating. Data indicates that over the past year, an average of one Palestinian has been killed or wounded in Gaza every 90 minutes.
Inger Ashing, CEO of Save the Children, underscored the catastrophic impact of the ongoing violence on the enclave’s youngest residents.
"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."
Destruction of Infrastructure and the Looming Winter Crisis
Recent satellite imagery highlights the staggering scale of physical devastation inflicted across the territory. Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to pulverized rubble, residential homes completely flattened, and vital agricultural lands systematically razed. Comprehensive assessments indicate that more than 80% of all structures across the Gaza Strip have sustained damage, with approximately two-thirds of those buildings completely destroyed.
As winter approaches for the fourth consecutive year since the escalation began, hundreds of thousands of families continue to reside in fragile tents, improvised makeshift shelters, or severely damaged, structurally unsound homes. These vulnerable populations remain fully exposed to freezing temperatures, biting winds, and seasonal flooding. The demographic makeup of the displaced has also shifted profoundly, with nearly one in every four households in Gaza now headed by a woman—families who statistically face an even higher risk of living in unsafe and grossly inadequate shelter conditions.
With virtually nowhere safe to turn, desperate families have resorted to sheltering inside structurally compromised war-damaged buildings that face an imminent threat of collapse. The lethal danger of this reality was underscored tragically in September, when 21 people—including 12 children—were killed instantly when a damaged residential building suddenly collapsed in Gaza City.
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, expressed profound frustration with the lack of international 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."
Healthcare Collapse and Acute Hunger
The restrictions maintained by Israeli authorities have similarly crippled Gaza’s essential public services. None of the enclave’s 36 hospitals are currently operating at full capacity, while vital pharmaceutical medicines, specialized medical equipment, and hospital fuel remain critically scarce.
Vulnerable patients—including newborn babies relying on functional incubators, individuals requiring constant oxygen or intensive care, older adults, and people living with disabilities or life-changing combat injuries—face acute, life-threatening risks. Specialized medical treatments, rehabilitation programs, and assistive services remain severely limited or entirely unavailable.
The medical crisis is further underscored by the backlog of patients awaiting specialized care abroad. More than 18,500 patients, including at least 4,000 children, are still waiting for urgently needed medical evacuations. Tragically, over 1,000 patients have already died while waiting for permission to leave the territory for treatment.
Simultaneously, food security has plummeted to catastrophic levels. An estimated 1.4 million people are facing crisis-level hunger or worse as the year draws to a close. Compounding the nutritional emergency, the widespread destruction of municipal water networks and sanitation infrastructure continues to fuel the rapid spread of preventable waterborne diseases.
Calls for International Accountability
Human rights organizations emphasize that the conditions prevailing in Gaza a year after the ceasefire mirror the exact systemic environments that previously led the UN Commission of Inquiry—in reports issued in September 2025 and June 2026—to conclude that Israel has committed genocide. Aid leaders stress that the international community’s legal and moral responsibilities do not conclude simply because an agreement was signed on paper.
Agnes Callmard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, emphasized the absolute necessity of legal accountability in any future framework for the territory.
"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."