The Gaza Strip, once densely populated and impoverished, now stands as a tragic emblem of one of the 21st century’s gravest humanitarian crises.

Since October 2023, when the latest Israeli military offensive began, the enclave has witnessed devastation on an unimaginable scale—indiscriminate bombings, widespread displacement, entire residential neighborhoods flattened and more than 70 per cent of the housing infrastructure destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

Over 72,027 Palestinians have been killed so far, including at least 171,561 injured.

People live in tents or open air, exposed to disease, hunger, and trauma.

Since, US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan between Israel and Hamas took effect on October 10, 2025, the scale, scope, and intensity of the assault going on in Gaza reveals a far darker agenda - “Extermination”.

What is going on in Gaza till date is not a military operation—it is systematic erasure of a people.

Israel has destroyed Gaza’s food system and weaponized food, water, medicine and fuel, using them tools of war which is a crime against humanity under international law.

Humanitarian aid is blocked at Rafah checkpoint and aid convoys are bombed.

Gazans now make up 80 per cent of all people facing famine or catastrophic hunger world- wide, marking an unparalleled humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s continued bombardment and siege according to UN human rights experts.

Entire hospitals are besieged and turned into war zones. Children are left to die slowly as the world watches.

Israel deals with the ceasefire as a security arrangement, not a humanitarian or political commitment.

The long-awaited reopening of the territory’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which reopened on January 2, as part of the second phase of the ceasefire was supposed to alleviate more than 18 months of a punishing Israeli military siege on Gaza.

Instead, Israeli authorities continued with tight security restrictions and a complex bureaucratic process that allowed only a small number of people to travel in either direction – leaving or entering Gaza – and also much-needed medicine, humanitarian supplies and goods are still blocked from passing freely through the border gate.

Under tight Israeli control, among the many restrictions being imposed at the crossing is that only people who left Gaza during the war are being allowed re-entry, after undergoing an exacting security clearance process.

Israel allowed only a symbolic number of returnees and tens of thousands still stranded outside Gaza.

On its part, the Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza revealed on February 4, that Israeli forces committed 1,520 violations of the ceasefire agreement since it went into effect on October 10, 2025.

These breaches resulted in 559 Palestinian victims and 1,500 injured in systematic violations of the ceasefire terms and international humanitarian law.

The violations occurred over 115 days and included incidents of gunfire, incursions by military vehicles into residential areas, airstrikes and targeted attacks, demolitions of homes and various buildings.

The GMO stressed that 99% of those killed were civilians, including children, women, and elderly individuals. Among the 1,500 injured, over 900 were children, women, and seniors, many of whom were wounded inside residential neighborhoods and far from any frontlines, raising the civilian injury rate to 99.2 per cent.

The statement also reported the arrest of 50 Palestinians during this time, all from residential areas and outside designated ceasefire lines.

The ceasefire stipulated that “full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip”. However, the reality on the ground remains very different.

According to the GMO, since October 10, 2025 to January 31, 2026 only 28,927 trucks entered Gaza out of 66,600, averaging 260 trucks per day. That is only 43 per cent of the trucks allocated.

It further noted that Israel has not complied with humanitarian protocol obligations, including allowing in tents, shelters, mobile homes, medical supplies, heavy machinery for rubble removal.

On the other hand, violations have been going on along the yellow line (the buffer zone) which acts as a de facto, temporary security buffer zone in the Gaza Strip established following the October 2025 ceasefire, where Israeli forces are stationed.

This, often unmarked, boundary has been the site of numerous violations, as Israeli forces have been moving (westward), deeper into the territory, increasing the area under their control to more than 50 per cent of the Gaza Strip thus effectively reducing the area available to Palestinian civilians.

Moreover, Israeli forces have been frequently opening fire on Palestinian civilians—including farmers, displaced persons, and residents—who approach or cross the Yellow Line. Hundreds of Palestinians have reportedly been killed in these incidents since the ceasefire took effect.

Additionally, ongoing demolitions of Palestinian buildings and infrastructure, including residential areas, have been documented behind the Yellow Line as a part of Israel’s

efforts to solidify this line as a new, long-term security barrier.

The continued enforcement and expansion of the Yellow Line have led to further displacement, with Gazans forced into even smaller, crowded areas in the west and has severely impacted agricultural livelihoods, with vast amounts of farmland made inaccessible.

Following the mediation by partners including Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey, representatives from some 30 countries that gathered on October 13 for the ceremony to sign the Gaza cease fire agreement, led by US President Donald Trump, doubts are now rising about the summit’s ability to achieve tangible progress towards ending the war and resolving the core issues of Israel’s occupation and the 18-year-long siege of Gaza.

Israel has pledged not to allow a Palestinian state, and the US has continued its large-scale arms transfers and diplomatic backing to Israel throughout its genocidal war on Gaza, while offering only vague statements about Gaza’s future and despite continuing attacks, it insists that the “ceasefire” is still holding.