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 warned that the truce exists entirely in name only. According to international agencies and local groups, Israeli forces have continued to kill and injure Palestinians on a daily basis, while severe and ongoing restrictions on humanitarian aid, heavy equipment, and rebuilding materials have completely paralyzed any possibility of recovery for families trapped in the enclave.
The coalition of humanitarian organizations issued a stark warning today, emphasizing that the ongoing daily loss of life, widespread deprivation, and systematic destruction must not be normalized under the deceptive cover of a political ceasefire agreement.
Data compiled over the past twelve months reveals a grim reality on the ground. Since the announcement of the ceasefire, Israeli military strikes, shootings, and ground operations have killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, a devastating toll that includes at least 327 children. This means, on average, at least one Palestinian has been killed or wounded in Gaza every 90 minutes since the agreement was supposedly implemented.
Families and exhausted civil defense rescue workers have been forced to recover hundreds of decomposing bodies directly from beneath mountains of pulverized concrete 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 specialized clearing equipment required to safely lift heavy rubble. Consequently, countless more victims remain buried and unreachable beneath the ruins of their former homes.
Compounding the violence, the Israeli military has systematically expanded its footprint, pushing the so-called "Yellow Line" further into the interior of the Gaza Strip, well beyond the formal withdrawal lines outlined in the original ceasefire agreement. This aggressive territorial encroachment has squeezed the surviving Palestinian population into an increasingly small, highly congested, and overcrowded enclave, drastically reducing the physical space available for human survival.
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a board member of the Palestinian NGO Network, underscored the impossible conditions under which local human rights defenders and aid workers are forced to operate.
"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."
Recent high-resolution satellite imagery starkly illustrates the immense scale of the devastation wrought by Israeli forces across the territory. Entire residential neighborhoods have been completely flattened and reduced to fine gray dust, while valuable agricultural lands have been thoroughly bulldozed and razed. Humanitarian 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 of all buildings completely destroyed.
As another harsh winter approaches the region, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families remain utterly unhoused, forced to live in fragile tents, makeshift plastic sheeting, or severely damaged, structurally compromised homes. These vulnerable populations now face their fourth consecutive winter completely exposed to freezing temperatures, biting winds, and seasonal flooding.
Compounding this housing crisis is the demographic reality of the conflict: nearly one in every four households in Gaza is now headed by a woman. These female-led households are disproportionately vulnerable and far more likely to find themselves relegated to unsafe, unsanitary, or profoundly inadequate forms of shelter.
For many desperate residents, there is quite literally nowhere safe left to run. Families have been compelled to seek refuge inside dangerously compromised, war-damaged buildings that face an imminent risk of sudden structural collapse. The deadly consequences of this housing crisis were tragically underscored in September, when a multi-story damaged building suddenly collapsed in Gaza City, instantly killing 21 people, including 12 young children.
Inger Ashing, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children, sharply criticized the international failure to enforce the terms of the agreement and protect vulnerable populations.
"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 severe blockade on reconstruction materials and equipment has had an equally catastrophic impact on Gaza’s essential public services, pushing the civil infrastructure entirely to the brink of total collapse. Today, not a single one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals is fully functioning. Medical facilities operate under near-impossible conditions, grappling with critical and chronic shortages of life-saving medicines, surgical equipment, and generator fuel.
Newborn babies confined to fragile incubators, critical patients requiring constant oxygen or intensive care, elderly residents, and individuals suffering from severe disabilities or life-changing war injuries face acute, immediate risks to their lives. Specialized medical treatment, post-traumatic rehabilitation, and assistive device services remain severely restricted or entirely unavailable inside the besieged territory.
The health crisis is further exacerbated by an overwhelming backlog of patients requiring urgent treatment abroad. More than 18,500 patients, including a minimum of 4,000 children, are still waiting desperately for medical evacuation to facilities outside Gaza. Tragically, more than 1,000 patients have already died while waiting indefinitely for permits and clearance to leave.
Outside the hospital walls, the food security situation continues to deteriorate at an alarming pace. 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 combination of unsafe, untreated drinking water and completely shattered municipal sanitation systems continues to fuel the rapid spread of entirely preventable waterborne diseases.
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, expressed deep frustration with the ongoing international paralysis regarding the humanitarian crisis.
"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."
A full year after the diplomatic breakthrough, the overarching pattern of suffering remains unmistakable and uninterrupted. Families continue to mourn loved ones killed in ongoing strikes. Children continue to succumb to easily preventable illnesses and malnutrition. The landscape of Gaza remains heavily littered with dangerous, unexploded ordnance left behind by military operations. Piles of domestic rubble cannot be cleared away, and humanitarian aid is systematically blocked from reaching the individuals who need it most.
Human rights experts note that these ongoing conditions bear a striking resemblance to the catastrophic environment that previously prompted the United Nations Commission of Inquiry—in official reports published in September 2025 and June 2026—to conclude that actions by Israel have amounted to genocide. Civil society leaders emphasize that the legal and moral responsibilities of the international community do not simply terminate with the signing of a superficial 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."