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 scathing joint assessment, declaring that the truce exists in name only. According to the coalition of aid agencies, ongoing military operations by Israeli forces continue to kill and injure Palestinians on a daily basis, while sweeping restrictions on humanitarian aid, heavy equipment, and essential rebuilding materials are actively preventing traumatized families from beginning the process of recovery.
The organizations working on the ground within the occupied Palestinian territory issued an urgent warning, stating that the continuous loss of life, widespread destruction, and systematic deprivation in Gaza must not be normalized under the protective cover of a defunct ceasefire agreement.
Over the past year, relentless Israeli military strikes, continuous gunfire, and localized ground operations have claimed the lives of more than 1,400 Palestinians, a grim toll that includes at least 327 children. In the wake of these ongoing attacks, desperate families and exhausted rescue workers have been forced to recover hundreds of bodies directly from the debris using their bare hands. This harrowing reality persists because Israeli authorities continue to restrict the entry of the heavy machinery and specialized equipment urgently required to clear collapsed structures and reach victims. Consequently, many more bodies remain buried and unreachable beneath the massive expanse of rubble.
Compounding the violence, the Israeli military has advanced the boundaries of the so-called Yellow Line deeper into the Gaza Strip, pushing far beyond the designated withdrawal lines established under the original ceasefire agreement. This strategic maneuver has forcibly squeezed the Palestinian population into an increasingly small, highly congested, and overcrowded enclave, drastically reducing the space available for safe habitation and civilian movement.
Mohsen Abu Ramadan, a board member of the Palestinian NGO Network, underscored the severe challenges facing local operational responders under these conditions. "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."
The human cost of this ongoing containment and military activity has fallen heavily upon the youngest residents of the territory. Inger Ashing, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children, emphasized the profound failure of the international framework to protect minors in the enclave.
"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."
Recent satellite imagery underscores the staggering scale of physical devastation inflicted across the territory by Israeli forces. Entire residential neighborhoods have been systematically reduced to pulverized rubble, homes have been completely flattened, and vast tracts of valuable agricultural land have been deliberately razed. Data compiled by humanitarian agencies indicates that more than 80% of all structures across the Gaza Strip have sustained varying degrees of damage, with approximately two-thirds completely destroyed.
As another harsh winter approaches the region, hundreds of thousands of displaced families continue to endure life in tattered tents, makeshift plastic shelters, or structurally compromised homes. This exposes them for a fourth consecutive winter to freezing temperatures, fierce winds, and destructive flooding. Compounding this vulnerability, nearly one in four households in Gaza is now headed by a woman, and these single-parent families are disproportionately far more likely to be living in unsafe, inadequate, or entirely exposed shelter arrangements.
For countless residents, there is simply nowhere safe to turn. Families frequently find themselves forced to shelter in war-damaged, structurally compromised buildings that remain at constant risk of sudden collapse. The fatal consequences of this housing crisis were starkly illustrated in September, when 21 people—including 12 children—were killed instantly when a severely damaged multi-story building abruptly collapsed in Gaza City.
Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, expressed outrage at the prolonged stagnation and suffering endured by the civilian population. "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."
These same systemic restrictions have inflicted catastrophic damage upon Gaza’s essential public services and infrastructure. Most notably, not a single one of the territory’s 36 hospitals is currently fully functioning. Essential medicines, advanced medical equipment, and vital fuel supplies remain in a state of critical scarcity. Newborn babies housed in vulnerable incubators, intensive care and oxygen-dependent patients, elderly residents, and individuals coping with disabilities or severe, life-altering injuries face acute, life-threatening risks as specialized treatment, institutional rehabilitation, 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 desperately waiting for medical evacuations to facilities outside the besieged enclave. Tragically, over 1,000 patients have already died while waiting for authorization and clearance to leave.
Simultaneously, food security remains at a catastrophic low. An estimated 1.4 million people across the territory are facing crisis-level hunger or worse as the year draws to a close. At the same time, the complete devastation of municipal water and sanitation systems continues to fuel the rapid spread of preventable waterborne diseases and infections among the displaced populace.
Human rights advocates point out that one year on, a grim and unmistakable pattern has emerged. Families continue to be killed in targeted strikes and operational incidents. Children continue to succumb to treatable and preventable illnesses. The landscape of Gaza remains heavily littered with dangerous, unexploded military ordnance. Homes lie buried beneath mountainous piles of rubble that local crews cannot clear, and vital humanitarian aid is routinely prevented from reaching the people who need it most.
Aid organizations emphasize that this grim reality bears little resemblance to what a ceasefire was intended to deliver. Instead, it reflects the very same systemic conditions that led the United Nations Commission of Inquiry, in formal reports issued in September 2025 and June 2026, to conclude that Israel has committed genocide. Civil society leaders stress that the responsibility of the international community does not conclude with the mere signing of an 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 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."