Nearly a Year Into the Gaza Ceasefire, Palestinians Are Still Waiting for the Relief They Were Promised

Nearly a year after the October 10, 2025 ceasefire was meant to end Israel’s war on Gaza, none of Gaza’s 37 hospitals are fully operational, and only 19 are even partially functioning, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) ^[3]. The Palestinian Ministry of Health’s running casualty count, cited by Al Jazeera, recorded at least 73,658 people killed in Gaza since October 2023, including an estimated 21,500 children as of September 10, 2026 ^[2]. Nearly a year into a truce that promised relief, the human toll in Gaza continues to climb.

Aid That Was Promised, Not Delivered

The ceasefire agreement stipulated that full humanitarian aid would be immediately sent into Gaza. That promise has not been kept. According to the Gaza Government Media Office, tracked by Al Jazeera, only about 35 percent of the trucks called for under the agreement roughly 66,607 of 189,000 had entered Gaza as of late August 2026, with truck drivers describing lengthy delays tied to Israeli inspections ^[2]. Human Rights Watch reported that aid volumes collapsed even further after Israel closed all Gaza crossings at the end of February 2026, during a separate military escalation involving Iran weekly truck crossings fell from an average of 4,200 to just 590 before only partially recovering ^[3].

A Population Still Displaced

Most of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents remain displaced, many in overcrowded sites without adequate protection as harsh weather seasons approach, according to humanitarian monitoring groups tracking conditions on the ground ^[6]. Homes, hospitals, and public infrastructure remain devastated nearly a year after the fighting was supposed to end, and rebuilding is expected to take years even under the most optimistic scenarios ^[1].

Israel’s Account Differs Sharply

Israeli authorities dispute this picture of stalled relief. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) reports that roughly 1.78 million tons of food entered Gaza between October 2025 and June 2026, and that staple food prices fell by approximately 72 percent over that period ^{[1, 4]}. COGAT also reports more than 18,000 tons of medical supplies entered the territory following the ceasefire ^{[1, 4]}. UNICEF and the World Food Programme said in January that famine conditions had been reversed in the weeks after the truce began, citing more than 10,000 aid trucks that had entered Gaza by that point ^[5].

A Gap Between the Numbers and the Reality

The gap between these accounts is itself telling. Even as officials point to rising aid volumes and falling prices, the people actually living through the aftermath in hospitals that can’t function, in displacement camps bracing for winter, under a death toll that continues to grow describe a ceasefire that has yet to deliver the relief it promised nearly a year ago ^{[2, 3]}.

Sources

1. American Jewish Committee, “Humanitarian Aid in Gaza: What’s Really Happening,” July 10, 2026 — https://www.ajc.org/news/humanitarian-aid-in-gaza-whats-really-happening
2. Al Jazeera, “How many times has Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire? Here are the numbers” — https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/11/how-many-times-has-israel-violated-the-gaza-ceasefire-here-are-the-numbers
3. Human Rights Watch, “Gaza: Israel Curbs Aid, Kills Civilians During Ceasefire,” May 19, 2026 — https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/05/19/gaza-israel-curbs-aid-kills-civilians-during-ceasefire
4. COGAT, “Humanitarian Situation Report During the Ceasefire, October 2025–June 2026” — https://gaza-aid-data.gov.il/media/e2gjueei/humanitarian-situation-report-during-the-ceasefire-cogat-july-2026.pdf
5. UN News, “Gaza ceasefire improves aid access, but children still face deadly conditions,” January 2026 — https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166835
6. Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine, “Humanitarian Situation Report, U.N., 4 September 2026” — https://www.waterjusticeinpalestine.org/blog/2026/9/9/humanitarian-situation-report-un-4-september-2026