Gaza After the Ceasefire: Martyrs Beneath the Rubble and Daily Violations Snuffing Out What Remains of Life

In a deeply harrowing humanitarian scene that evokes the darkest chapters of open warfare, the genocide in Gaza continues unabated—more than twenty-six days after the announcement of a ceasefire. The Israeli occupation persists in its field and political violations, blocking the entry of humanitarian aid, while living and health crises worsen. Thousands of martyrs and missing persons remain buried under the rubble amid international paralysis and complicit silence that reveal the depth of U.S. and Western bias toward the occupation.

The National Committee for Missing Persons in Gaza confirmed that more than 10,000 martyrs are still buried beneath the ruins of destroyed buildings since the start of the Israeli aggression on October 7, 2023, describing Gaza as having turned into the world’s largest mass grave. The committee called on the international community to send specialized teams to help recover the bodies, identify them, and provide the necessary equipment to clear the debris—preserving the dignity of the martyrs and the rights of their families.

Although the ceasefire agreement officially took effect on October 10, 2025, the Israeli killing machine has not stopped. The Palestinian Ministry of Health has documented over 68,875 martyrs and 170,679 injured, most of them women and children, since the start of the war—along with over 11,000 missing persons. The ministry reported that 241 martyrs and 609 wounded have fallen since the ceasefire was declared, due to repeated Israeli violations and ongoing bombardments across Gaza.

On the twenty-sixth day of the truce, Al-Masirah’s correspondent in Gaza reported that artillery and air strikes have continued since dawn, targeting areas east of Deir al-Balah, the al-Bureij refugee camp, and the al-Shuja’iyya and al-Tuffah neighborhoods, while Israeli naval forces persist in shelling the coasts of Khan Younis and Rafah. The correspondent also confirmed that the occupation refuses to implement the humanitarian terms of the agreement, allowing in only a few dozen aid trucks per day—out of 600 promised—continuing its policy of suffocation and starvation.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, only 28% of the agreed aid has actually entered the Strip—around 4,453 trucks out of the 15,600 approved. It stated that the occupation bans the entry of more than 350 essential food items, allowing only goods with little to no nutritional value—such as soft drinks and chocolate—in a deliberate policy of engineered starvation, using food security as a tool of political blackmail.

Amjad Al-Shawa, Director of the Palestinian NGO Network, said that incoming aid covers only 20–30% of actual needs, with more than 1.5 million displaced people facing the threat of hunger and cold in tattered tents as winter approaches. He explained that Israel continues to block thousands of UN and international relief trucks, including those of UNRWA, whose humanitarian operations are being systematically obstructed.

Meanwhile, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, warned of ongoing Israeli war crimes, asserting that the “peace” spoken of by Washington and Tel Aviv is nothing but a façade to cover up continuous mass killings—amid escalating settler violence in the West Bank and the expansion of the “Greater Jerusalem” project aimed at displacing Palestinians and altering the city’s demographic identity.

On the ground, Israeli violations persist. Occupation forces carried out more than ten new attacks in recent hours, including airstrikes and demolitions in eastern Gaza, al-Bureij, and Khan Younis—reflecting Israel’s total lack of seriousness about any agreement. Civil Defense reported conducting over 43 rescue and firefighting operations within 24 hours under extremely harsh conditions, while being unable to reach hundreds of sites with victims still trapped beneath the rubble.

With the siege tightening, Gaza’s municipalities and environmental experts warn of an impending ecological and health catastrophe due to the destruction of water and sewage networks and the accumulation of more than 260,000 tons of waste, with only 17 of 88 wells still functioning. Hospitals face severe shortages of fuel, medicine, and medical supplies, causing a sharp rise in deaths among the wounded.

The so-called ceasefire has proven to be nothing more than a superficial truce concealing the continuation of war by other means. The Israeli regime continues to wage systematic killing, starvation, and displacement against civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, amid glaring international silence and blatant U.S. complicity. As Palestinians bury their loved ones—or dig through rubble searching for them—the so-called free world faces a profound moral and humanitarian test:
Will it stand for justice and human dign