One year on, Gaza ceasefire exists ‘in name only,’ aid groups say amid near-daily Israeli strikes

Palestinians collect belognings as they inspect the destruction caused by an Israeli airstrike on a residential building on Friday in the Sabra area of Gaza City.Omar Ashtawy / GettyShareAdd NBC News to GoogleOct. 10, 2026, 10:12 AM EDTBy Chantal Da Silva and Freddie ClaytonEight-year-old Muhammad al-Shakhrit had survived years of war, displaced by Israeli strikes that destroyed his family’s home in Rafah and forced them to live in a tent by the coast.

But just weeks before the one-year anniversary of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that was supposed to bring an end to the bombing, he was killed by Israeli forces.

“Muhammad was the flower of our life,” his grandfather Abdul al-Shakhrit told NBC News. “He was mature beyond his age. He used to behave like adults, even his friends are older than him. He loved fishing. I used to take him fishing with my friends.”

Muhammad al-Shakhrit was killed in Gaza on Sept. 26, his family says.Abdul Wahab Muhammad Jamil Al-ShakhritMuhammad’s father is “refusing to eat or talk to anyone,” al-Shakhrit, 61, said. “He became an introvert, always sitting by himself in the tent and crying.”

More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed and 5,189 injured by Israeli fire since the ceasefire was signed one year ago Saturday, according to figures from the Palestinian health ministry. Over 70,000 were killed in the two years of war before it came into effect.

As Israeli strikes continue to rain down on the Palestinian enclave, humanitarian and human rights groups say the ceasefire, in part brokered by President Donald Trump and signed at a summit one year ago, exists “in name only, with Israeli forces continuing to kill and injure Palestinians daily, and restrictions on aid, equipment and rebuilding materials preventing families from recovering.”

“The killing and deprivation in Gaza must not be normalized under the cover of a ceasefire agreement,” the statement said.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres separately warned this week that the ceasefire has “yet to deliver security, adequate humanitarian assistance or a credible path to recovery and peace,” saying that the signatories must “implement their commitments in full” and “allow humanitarian assistance at scale.”

An Israeli airstrike hits a residential building on Hamid Street in Al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City on Sept. 9, sending a large plume of smoke, dust and debris above surrounding homes.Faiz Qreqa / AFP via Getty“The ceasefire is an illusion,” said al-Shakhrit. “Nobody who lives in Gaza believes that there is a ceasefire. There are bombings happening daily.”

Airstrikes are heard in Gaza “almost on a daily basis,” Aseel Baidoun, deputy director of advocacy and campaigns at Medical Aid for Palestinians, said in a phone interview Friday.

“Everyone is still displaced, living in tents, facing public health hazards, hygiene catastrophes with no clean water, so the situation in Gaza is still as bad as before the ceasefire, but with some access to food which is not even nutritious, and with a slower pace of airstrikes,” she added.

Baidoun said Palestinians also continued to be displaced by Israeli strikes on the enclave, including MAP’s own staff in Gaza, “who were recently displaced again because the Israeli airplanes targeted their building or the neighborhood.”

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, which provides emergency services, told NBC News that from the moment the ceasefire was announced, “the Israeli occupation has continued its killing operations.”

“All that has actually occurred is a temporary reduction in the intensity of the bombardment, while the occupation frequently reverts to targeting areas and significantly escalating hostilities,” he said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a requests for comment from NBC News on the near daily strikes reported in Gaza, and the attack that killed al-Shakhrit. It has previously said that it continues to strike Hamas and other militant targets. At least four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began, according to Reuters.

In one post on Friday, the Israeli military said it had conducted “targeted strikes” in several areas across the enclave the day before to dismantle weapons storage facilities belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Both Israel and Hamas say they continue to be committed to the ceasefire, while accusing the other of breaching it.

Mourners at Al-Shifa Hospital on Sept. 19 attend the funeral of a Palestinian man who was killed in an Israeli drone strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.Faiz Qreqa / AFP via GettyAnnounced a year ago, the ceasefire was intended to be the first stage of a broader peace and reconstruction effort in Gaza, with the deal also securing the return of all remaining Israeli hostages held there and the freeing of thousands of Palestinians being held by Israel.

The deal was signed at a summit co-chaired by Trump in Egypt, a grand spectacle attended by 20 world leaders. It also led to the establishment of the Trump-led Board of Peace, a body initially charged with overseeing the peace process and later charged with a wider global remit.

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a key envoy in the peace talks, said in January that initial work on a reconstructed “New Gaza” could be completed within two to three years.

But efforts to advance peace talks have since faltered, leaving an uneasy status quo in place. Israeli troops hold 70% of the Gaza Strip, with civilians confined to the remaining area, which is still largely under Hamas control.

Israel continues to prevent the entry of heavy machinery that would allow rubble from ruined buildings to be cleared, arguing militants could use such machinery to excavate tunnels.

Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, both key stipulations of Trump’s broader peace plan, have been major sticking points in efforts toward a lasting truce, while other global events, like the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran, have pushed further talks on Gaza to the sidelines.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza are left largely living out of tents or ruined buildings, bracing for a cold and rainy winter ahead with little protection from the elements. Four out of five families in Gaza currently face critical or catastrophic living conditions, the United Nations said in August.

Damage following a reported Israeli airstrike that targeted a minibus and killed five people in Gaza City's Tel al-Hawa neighborhood on Sept. 30.Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP via Getty ImagesIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year rejected Trump’s 15-point plan for a lasting truce, with the Israeli leader vowing that there would be no military withdrawal until Hamas is “genuinely disarmed.”

Hamas has previously said it will disarm, but that Israel must first end its strikes and begin its withdrawal from Gaza. It has also previously said that laying down its heavy weapons would come later in the process, contingent on the international recognition of a Palestinian state, a demand Israel’s current government rejects.

Despite international pressure over conditions in Gaza, Netanyahu is facing domestic political pressure to embrace a more extreme stance ahead of Israel’s parliamentary election this month, with two far-right Cabinet ministers floating plans to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the peace process.

More than 74,200 people, including thousands of children, have been killed in Gaza overall since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks in which some 1,200 people died and 251 were taken hostage.

As efforts toward a lasting peace continue to falter, “the reality on the ground for Palestinians” remains “catastrophic,” Baidoun of MAP said.

“They’re looking for a solution,” she said, but “there’s nothing on the horizon and people are really struggling to survive day after day.”

ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleChantal Da SilvaChantal Da Silva reports on world news for NBC News Digital and is based in London.

Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London.