Over 100 NGOs: Gaza ceasefire 'exists only on paper'
Al Jazeera Staff
More than 100 humanitarian, human rights and civil society organizations said on October 10 that the Gaza ceasefire, one year on, exists "only on paper," as Israel keeps up attacks and blocks aid and reconstruction materials. They say over 1,400 Palestinians have been killed since the truce took effect, including at least 327 children.
A full year after the so-called ceasefire in Gaza was established with U.S. backing, more than 100 humanitarian, human rights and civil society organizations say the agreement exists only on paper.
In a joint statement issued on October 10, the groups said: "The ceasefire exists in name only, as Israeli forces continue to kill and injure Palestinians every day, while restrictions on aid, equipment and reconstruction materials prevent families from recovering."
Amnesty International, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Save the Children, Oxfam, Greenpeace and dozens of other international organizations said Israeli attacks over the past year have killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 327 children. The figures come one year after U.S. President Trump announced the agreement to end the conflict under the framework of the Gaza Peace Council mechanism.
"It is shameful that a full year after the ceasefire was signed, the situation for Palestinians in Gaza has barely improved," NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland said in the joint statement.
Save the Children Chief Executive Inger Ashing said: "A ceasefire is meaningless if children are still being killed and families still cannot rebuild their lives." She noted that since the ceasefire was announced on October 10, 2025, "a child has been killed almost every day."
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in the three years since the war that the organizations call a genocide began in October 2023, more than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed and another 175,000 wounded — equivalent to roughly one-thirteenth of Gaza's population.
A conservative estimate by the World Health Organization (WHO) suggests about 24 percent of the wounded suffer long-term injuries requiring prolonged rehabilitation, a quarter of them children.
According to the ministry's October 10 statement, the few remaining health facilities in Gaza are overwhelmed and short of supplies, none of the 36 hospitals is operating at full capacity, and medicine, equipment and fuel are severely lacking. More than 18,500 patients, including at least 4,000 children, need medical evacuation, and more than 1,000 have died while waiting.
Nearly 2 million Palestinians in the territory are also in urgent need of shelter, with 80 percent of structures damaged. Egeland warned that restrictions on equipment and construction materials continue to hold back recovery: "Israel's restrictions are still blocking the equipment and supplies needed — the very things that would let communities begin to rebuild their lives."
The joint statement also said 1.4 million people in Gaza "face crisis-level hunger or worse through the end of this year."
On the ground, Israeli forces on October 10 fired live ammunition at civilians in the al-Musaddar, Maghazi and Bureij refugee camp areas in central Gaza, killing at least one Palestinian; the area also came under heavy Israeli shelling. In Khan Younis in the south, Israeli tanks opened heavy fire on the Bani Suheila roundabout, where many injuries were reported. A day earlier, at least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded in Israeli airstrikes and shelling across Gaza.
The October 10 statement also said Israeli forces have further squeezed Palestinian living space by arbitrarily shifting the so-called "Yellow Line," which was set up as a buffer separating Israeli-controlled and Palestinian areas under last year's ceasefire agreement.
The "ceasefire" took effect on October 10, 2025. Since then, Israel has killed at least 1,471 Palestinians and wounded 5,189. Three years of conflict have killed at least 74,254 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children — roughly one-thirtieth of the population, or 3 percent of the pre-war population.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health counts only deaths recorded in hospitals or officially registered. The true figure is believed to be far higher, as it does not include thousands of people still buried under destroyed buildings or missing. "Justice cannot be buried under the rubble," Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said in the joint statement. "The persistent failure to hold Israel accountable and to press it to comply with the binding rulings of the International Court of Justice continues to fuel mass atrocities against Palestinians."
