GAZA — One year after a ceasefire agreement was officially brokered for the Gaza Strip, a coalition of more than 100 humanitarian, human rights, and civil society organisations has warned that the accord exists in name only. According to the groups, Israeli forces have continued to kill and injure Palestinians on a daily basis, while severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, heavy equipment, and rebuilding materials have prevented families from beginning the monumental task of recovery.
The joint warning comes as statistics from the past year underscore a grim reality on the ground. More than 1,400 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since the ceasefire was announced, translating to roughly one Palestinian killed or wounded every 90 minutes. Nearly two million people still remain in desperate need of proper shelter, not a single hospital across the entire enclave is fully functioning, and 1.4 million individuals are currently facing crisis-level hunger or worse as winter approaches.
Humanitarian leaders and local Palestinian representatives are calling on the international community to break its silence, arguing that the ongoing deprivation and bloodshed must not be normalized under the protective cover of a nominal ceasefire agreement.
Local Responders Overwhelmed Amid Ongoing Restrictions
Speaking on the reality faced by local institutions, Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a board member of the Palestinian NGO Network, detailed the immense challenges confronting local human rights and relief workers.
"Palestinian organisations are responding to immense needs under Israeli occupation with destroyed offices, displaced staff, and shrinking budgets," Abu Ramadan said. He emphasized that while local and national organizations serve as the crucial first responders and will remain on the ground, their safety and operational capacity must be guaranteed. "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."
Over the past year of the purported ceasefire, continuous Israeli airstrikes, targeted shootings, and localized military operations have claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians, a toll that includes at least 327 children. Families and local rescue workers have been forced to recover hundreds of decomposing or crushed bodies directly from the debris using little more than their bare hands. This desperate measure is necessary because Israeli authorities have consistently restricted the entry of the heavy machinery and mechanical equipment required to safely lift concrete slabs and reach deeper into collapsed structures, leaving countless more bodies buried and unreachable.
Compounding the security crisis, the Israeli military has advanced and repositioned the so-called Yellow Line further into the Gaza Strip, pushing it beyond the original withdrawal boundaries established in the agreement. This movement has systematically squeezed the Palestinian population into an increasingly small, highly congested territory, intensifying overcrowding and compounding public health risks.
A Meaningless Ceasefire for Children and Families
The human cost of the ongoing violence has weighed heavily on the younger generation, with humanitarian executives emphasizing the failure of global powers to enforce the terms of the agreement they endorsed.
Inger Ashing, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children, expressed deep dismay over the sustained loss of young lives. "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."
Ashing urged the international governments that originally backed the agreement to leverage their political influence immediately. "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."
Recent satellite imagery highlights the absolute scope of the physical devastation across the enclave. Entire residential neighborhoods have been flattened and reduced to chaotic fields of gray rubble, while vast stretches of agricultural land have been completely razed. Assessments indicate that more than 80% of all structures throughout Gaza have sustained structural damage, with approximately two-thirds completely destroyed.
With winter approaching for the fourth consecutive year since the escalation began, hundreds of thousands of families continue to reside in fragile tents, makeshift plastic sheeting, or severely damaged, structurally compromised homes, leaving them completely exposed to cold winds, freezing temperatures, and seasonal flooding. Demographic vulnerabilities add to the crisis: nearly one in four households in Gaza is now headed by a woman, and these single-parent families are disproportionately stranded in unsafe, inadequate shelters.
For many residents, the search for safety has become an impossible labyrinth. Families have been forced to seek shelter inside heavily damaged buildings that remain at constant risk of sudden collapse. Illustrating this ongoing hazard, 21 people—including 12 children—were killed in September alone when a heavily compromised building collapsed in Gaza City.
Infrastructure Paralysis and Healthcare Collapse
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, condemned the lack of tangible progress over the past twelve months. "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."
Egeland pointed directly to administrative and military blockades as the primary bottleneck to recovery. "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."
These sustained restrictions have thoroughly crippled Gaza’s essential public services, most notably the healthcare sector. Not a single one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals is currently operating at full capacity. Essential pharmaceutical drugs, specialized medical equipment, and hospital fuel remain in critically short supply.
Vulnerable patients—including newborn babies requiring incubators, individuals dependent on oxygen therapy or intensive care units, elderly citizens, and people living with disabilities or life-altering combat injuries—face acute, daily risks. Specialized medical treatment, post-operative rehabilitation, and basic assistive devices remain severely restricted or entirely unavailable.
Administrative bottlenecks have also strangled medical referrals. More than 18,500 patients, including at least 4,000 children, remain stranded and urgently require medical evacuation abroad for life-saving care. Over 1,000 patients have already died while waiting for authorization to leave the strip.
Simultaneously, food security has deteriorated to catastrophic levels. An estimated 1.4 million people face crisis-level hunger or worse as the year draws to a close. Compounding the nutritional emergency, compromised water distribution networks and obliterated sanitation infrastructure continue to fuel the rapid spread of preventable waterborne diseases.
Calls for Accountability and International Law
Humanitarian advocates argue that the persistent conditions on the ground closely mirror the baseline environment that previously led the United Nations Commission of Inquiry to conclude, in reports issued in September 2025 and June 2026, that Israel has committed genocide. Civil society leaders maintain that the international community’s legal and moral obligations do not conclude simply because an agreement was signed on paper.
Agnès Callmard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, underscored 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," she added. "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."