GAZA CITY — One year after a ceasefire agreement was officially reached in the Gaza Strip, a coalition of more than 100 humanitarian, human rights, and civil society organizations has warned that the accord exists in name only. According to the reporting and joint assessments of these organizations, ongoing military operations by Israeli forces continue to claim Palestinian lives on a daily basis, while severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, heavy equipment, and rebuilding materials prevent families from achieving any meaningful recovery.
The organizations working on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory issued a joint declaration warning the international community that the relentless killing and systemic deprivation taking place in Gaza must not be normalized under the protective cover of a nominal ceasefire agreement.
Over the past year, intense Israeli military strikes, targeted shootings, and ground operations have resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 327 children. Throughout this period, desperate families and local rescue workers have been forced to recover hundreds of decomposing bodies directly from the rubble using their bare hands. This grim reality persists because Israeli authorities continue to heavily restrict the entry of the specialized machinery, heavy equipment, and cranes urgently needed to clear wreckage and reach those trapped underneath. As a result, 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 the Gaza Strip, pushing well beyond the initial withdrawal line established under the terms of the original agreement. This tactical expansion has squeezed the remaining Palestinian population into an increasingly small, highly congested, and overcrowded zone, severely limiting living space and cutting off access to vital agricultural lands and coastal areas.
Recent high-resolution satellite imagery underscores the staggering scale of the devastation inflicted across the enclave by Israeli forces. Entire neighborhoods have been systematically reduced to pulverized rubble, residential homes have been flattened, and vast stretches of agricultural land have been completely razed. Current assessments indicate that more than 80% of all structures across the Gaza Strip have sustained varying degrees of damage, with approximately two-thirds of those structures completely destroyed and rendered uninhabitable.
As another harsh winter approaches, hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian families continue to reside in temporary tents, makeshift shelters, or structurally compromised and half-collapsed homes. These vulnerable populations now face their fourth consecutive winter completely exposed to biting cold, high winds, and severe flooding. The demographic toll of the conflict is starkly visible in family structures: nearly one in four households in Gaza is now headed by a woman, and these female-headed households are statistically far more likely to be living in unsafe, highly inadequate, and precarious shelter environments.
For countless residents, there remains simply nowhere safe to go. Many families have been forced to seek shelter inside heavily damaged buildings that remain structurally unstable and at immediate risk of sudden collapse. The deadly consequences of this housing crisis were tragically illustrated in September, when a severely damaged multi-story building abruptly collapsed in Gaza City, instantly killing 21 people, including 12 children.
The crisis extends far beyond housing, directly crippling the region’s essential public services and infrastructure. Not a single one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals is currently functioning at full capacity or providing comprehensive care. Vital medical supplies, specialized equipment, and life-saving fuel remain critically scarce across all medical facilities. Newborn babies housed in vulnerable incubators, patients requiring constant oxygen support or intensive care units, older adults, and individuals living with disabilities or severe life-changing injuries are facing acute, life-threatening risks. Specialized medical treatments, rehabilitation programs, and assistive services remain severely restricted or entirely unavailable.
Furthermore, more than 18,500 patients, including at least 4,000 children, remain stranded and desperately in need of urgent medical evacuation abroad to receive specialized treatment that cannot be provided locally. Tragically, more than 1,000 patients have already died while waiting for authorization and logistical clearance to leave the territory.
In parallel with the healthcare collapse, food insecurity has reached catastrophic levels. An estimated 1.4 million people across the Gaza Strip are currently facing crisis-level hunger or worse as the year draws to a close. At the same time, the complete devastation of municipal water networks and sanitation infrastructure continues to fuel the rapid spread of entirely preventable diseases, particularly among young children.
The cumulative impact of these conditions reflects a grim and unmistakable pattern. Families continue to suffer violent losses, children continue to succumb to preventable illnesses, and the landscape of Gaza remains heavily littered with unexploded ordnance. Homes lie buried beneath mountainous piles of rubble that cannot be cleared, and essential humanitarian aid remains blocked from reaching the populations who need it most.
Human rights advocates emphasize that this dystopian reality is a profound failure of the objectives a ceasefire was designed to deliver. Instead, the current situation reflects the very same systemic conditions that led the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, in formal reports issued in September 2025 and again in June 2026, to conclude that Israel has committed genocide. Civil society leaders stress that the legal and moral responsibilities of the international community do not end with the signing of an agreement on paper.
Prominent leaders from the coalition of civil society organizations have voiced urgent calls for immediate, decisive international intervention to address the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe and enforce accountability.
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a board member of the Palestinian NGO Network, emphasized the immense pressure under which local human rights defenders and civil society groups are operating.
"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."
Echoing these concerns, Inger Ashing, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children, highlighted the devastating ongoing toll the situation continues to exact upon the youngest generation in Gaza.
"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."
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, condemned the lack of tangible progress over the past year and pointed directly to the bureaucratic and physical blockades enforced by Israeli authorities.
"It is utterly shameful that a full year after the ceasefire was signed, so little has improved for Palestinians in Gaza," Egeland stated. "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."
Agnès Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, underscored the critical importance of international law and judicial accountability in resolving the crisis and preventing further mass-scale atrocities.
"Accountability cannot be swept under the rubble," Callamard 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."