Gaza — One year after a ceasefire agreement was officially reached in the Gaza Strip, more than 100 humanitarian, human rights, and civil society organizations have issued a stark warning that the truce exists in name only. According to the coalition of aid agencies, 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 completely prevented families from beginning the process of recovery.
The joint coalition cautioned that the ongoing violence, structural devastation, and systemic deprivation in Gaza must not be normalized under the protective cover of a nominal ceasefire agreement. Over the past twelve months, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated into a protracted crisis marked by staggering casualties, widespread homelessness, catastrophic food insecurity, and the total collapse of the medical infrastructure.
A Continuing Toll of Bloodshed and Destruction
Since the announcement of the ceasefire, Israeli military operations, airstrikes, and gunfire have claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 327 children. This translates to an average of roughly one Palestinian killed or wounded every 90 minutes.
Rescue workers and desperate family members have been forced to recover hundreds of decomposing bodies directly from the massive expanses of rubble using their bare hands. This grim reality persists because Israeli authorities have systematically restricted the entry of heavy machinery, cranes, and specialized excavation equipment needed to safely reach victims buried beneath collapsed structures. Countless more bodies remain trapped and unreachable under the concrete ruins of flattened neighborhoods.
Compounding the physical violence, the Israeli military has pushed the so-called Yellow Line further into the interior of the Gaza Strip, extending well beyond the designated withdrawal boundaries established in the original agreement. This aggressive territorial expansion has squeezed the surviving Palestinian population into an increasingly small, congested, and heavily overcrowded coastal zone, severely limiting access to basic necessities and safe spaces.
Recent high-resolution satellite imagery underscores the unprecedented scale of the devastation inflicted across the territory. Entire neighborhoods have been systematically reduced to pulverized rubble, residential homes have been flattened to their foundations, and vital agricultural lands have been thoroughly razed. Independent assessments indicate that more than 80 percent of all physical structures across the Gaza Strip have sustained varying degrees of damage, with approximately two-thirds completely destroyed.
Voices from the Ground: Aid Leaders Demand Immediate Action
The human cost of the ongoing crisis has drawn sharp condemnation and urgent appeals from prominent international and local humanitarian leaders.
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a board member of the Palestinian NGO Network, emphasized the extreme challenges facing local humanitarian actors 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."
Inger Ashing, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children, echoed these grave concerns, highlighting the devastating toll the ongoing violence continues to exact on the youngest 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."
Facing Another Brutal Winter Without Shelter
As the region braces for another harsh winter season, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families remain utterly unhoused, living precariously in makeshift tents, tattered canvas shelters, or dangerously compromised and partially collapsed homes. This marks the fourth consecutive winter that displaced populations will face freezing temperatures, piercing winds, and heavy seasonal flooding without adequate protection or insulation.
The demographic toll of the conflict has also exacerbated living conditions. Nearly one in every four households in Gaza is now headed by a woman, and these vulnerable families face disproportionately higher risks of being forced into unsafe, inadequate, or entirely exposed shelter arrangements.
With virtually nowhere safe left to turn, desperate families have increasingly resorted to sheltering inside structurally compromised war-damaged buildings that face an imminent threat of catastrophic collapse. The deadly consequences of this desperate housing shortage were laid bare in September, when a multi-story damaged building collapsed in Gaza City, instantly killing 21 people, including 12 children.
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, expressed profound dismay 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."
The Collapse of Healthcare and Essential Services
The systemic restrictions on goods and materials have also devastated Gaza’s essential public services, pushing the medical sector past the point of collapse. Not a single one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals is currently fully functioning. Essential medicines, specialized medical equipment, surgical tools, and fuel to power hospital generators remain in a state of critical scarcity.
Acute medical emergencies are mounting daily. Newborn babies housed in vulnerable incubators, intensive care patients, individuals requiring mechanical oxygen support, older adults, and people living with disabilities or severe, life-changing injuries face immediate life-threatening risks. Specialized medical treatments, rehabilitation programs, and assistive technology services remain severely restricted or entirely unavailable.
The backlog for urgent medical care has reached catastrophic proportions. More than 18,500 patients, including at least 4,000 children, remain stranded and urgently require medical evacuation for advanced treatment outside the Gaza Strip. To date, over 1,000 patients have died while waiting for the administrative approvals and logistical facilitation required to leave.
Concurrently, the food security situation remains dire. Up to 1.4 million people across the territory are confronting crisis-level hunger or worse as the year draws to a close. This food emergency is compounded by widespread consumption of unsafe water and the complete devastation of municipal sanitation and sewage systems, driving the rapid, unchecked spread of preventable waterborne diseases.
A Crisis Rooted in Impunity and Lack of Accountability
Human rights advocates argue that the persistent failure to alleviate the suffering in Gaza reflects a broader, systemic pattern of impunity. The conditions on the ground—characterized by ongoing violence, engineered deprivation, blocked aid, and vast swaths of unexploded ordnance littering residential neighborhoods—mirror the very crises that prompted the UN Commission of Inquiry to conclude in formal reports in September 2025 and June 2026 that Israel has committed genocide.
Humanitarian organizations emphasize that the legal and moral responsibility of the international community does not conclude with the signing of a nominal agreement on paper.
Agnes Callmard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, underscored the critical necessity of global accountability. "Accountability cannot be swept under the rubble," Callmard stated. "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."