The ceasefire that keeps killing children: Gaza one year on

According to the Trump administration, there is a ceasefire in Gaza, since 10th October 2025. This would suggest that no firing is going on, nobody is being killed or injured, no homes, schools or hospitals are being destroyed, and no Palestinians are being detained and taken away from Gaza. It also implies that Gazans are getting enough food, water and medicines and even rebuilding is around the corner awaiting the go ahead signal.

But is this the reality on the ground, or merely the picture the word “ceasefire” is supposed to convey so Mr Trump, desperate for the Nobel Peace Prize can build up his profile on the hope to win it next year?

On the anniversary of the ceasefire itself, at least seven Palestinians, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed by Israeli fire. Since the ceasefire took effect on 10th October 2025, the latest figures says least 1,498 Palestinians have been killed and another 5,306 injured, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry whose figures are usually used by the United Nations. Israeli attacks never really stopped after October 2025, despite the so-called ceasefire. Attacks have also struck shelters housing displaced Palestinians, while much of the enclave’s building stock has already been destroyed or damaged, in many cases repeatedly.

According to Islamic Relief, an aid organization, one Palestinian is killed or injured by Israeli fire every 90 minutes despite the ceasefire.

To put the scale of the killing into an even more horrific perspective, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza since October 2023 has killed at least 74,389 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. They include at least 21,976 children, almost 30% of the total. The same sources confirm at least 175,423 injuried and counting. 

READ: 4 Palestinians killed, several others injured in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza despite ceasefire

The United Nations has confirmed that Israeli attacks continued throughout the year despite the ceasefire, killing and injuring Palestinians and repeatedly displacing families. According to the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), its investigators had verified 1,076 conflict-related deaths between 10th October 2025, and the end of July 2026, including 268 children. At least 331 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed near the so-called “Yellow Line,” including people who were carrying out ordinary civilian activities and some who were inside their tents. The UN warned that killing civilians who are not directly participating in hostilities is a war crime, regardless of where they are killed. The UN’s October 12 report makes clear that a ceasefire has not brought safety to Gaza’s civilians.

The phantom ceasefire has not brought Gazans the food, clean water, shelter materials and medical care they desperately need.

On 2nd October, the World Health Organisation reported that not a single hospital in Gaza was fully functional, largely because of chronic shortages of medicines and medical supplies.

The median wait for Israeli authorities to approve medical shipments is around 74 days, excluding delivery time, further delaying the arrival of essential supplies. Meanwhile, restrictions on humanitarian goods, shortages of spare parts and funding cuts have continued to undermine water and sanitation services. A year after the ceasefire, Palestinians are still living amid destroyed infrastructure, inadequate medical care and a humanitarian crisis that the ceasefire was supposed to help end. Food supplies improved somewhat earlier in the ceasefire, but they have never reached an adequate level to give the population any real sense of relief or confidence that the severe scarcity they have endured will not return.

READ: Egypt has ‘no hidden agendas,’ ambitions against anyone: President 

As another winter approaches, one can only imagine what life on the ground looks like for the over two million Palestinians living in the enclave, most of them displaced from their homes. Although the flow of some supplies has improved since the ceasefire took effect, shelter materials and other essentials remain inadequate, and little has been done to enable people to return home or begin rebuilding their lives—a promise made to them as soon as the ceasefire was confirmed.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 279,000 people are sheltering in 400 flood-prone displacement sites and more than 2,300 unsafe buildings requiring demolition. Nearly 44,000 people are living in these unsafe buildings.

These conditions are particularly dangerous as the rainy season abut to start. Humanitarian efforts remain hampered by Israeli restrictions on the entry of critical supplies, equipment and spare parts, including materials needed to repair water and sanitation infrastructure and prepare shelters for winter. A year after the ceasefire, Palestinians are still struggling to find safe shelter amid the ruins, while reconstruction remains largely stalled. The ceasefire may have reduced the intensity of the war, but it has not given Gaza’s displaced population a realistic prospect of returning to normal life.

A year after the ceasefire was announced, the central question remains: what does a ceasefire mean when Palestinians continue to be killed and injured, families remain displaced, essential supplies are inadequate and reconstruction has yet to begin? The figures documented by Gaza’s Health Ministry, the United Nations and humanitarian organisations make clear that the announcement itself has not delivered the safety and relief that Palestinians were promised.

For the Trump administration and its Board of Peace, the ceasefire may be presented as a diplomatic achievement, but its success cannot be measured by the agreement’s existence or the passage of time. It must be measured by whether Palestinians can live without fear of being killed, obtain the necessities of life and return to their homes.

Until that becomes reality, calling the situation a ceasefire risks disguising the continuing suffering of Gaza’s population rather than bringing it to an end.

OPINION: How Gaza’s genocide is reshaping US domestic politics

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.