Overview

The Gaza ceasefire agreement entered into effect in October 2025. Israel, however, has continued to attack population centers and carry out the systematic destruction of buildings and infrastructure in areas under its control, along with indiscriminately firing at anyone who approaches or crosses the Yellow Line. Meanwhile, the Gaza Strip is still gripped by a major humanitarian crisis due to the restrictions Israel imposes on the entry of aid. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands injured in recent months in ceasefire violations, and Gaza’s residents continue to live under conditions of harsh deprivation, fear and uncertainty, while carrying the trauma of war and displacement.

As a result of Gaza’s partition by the Yellow Line, more than two million residents are crowded into less than half of its area. Almost all of them are internally displaced, living in tents or in ruined buildings and without minimal living conditions, including clean drinking water, electricity, and basic hygiene. Gaza’s population is almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid and in need of essential basic equipment, which Israel continues to restrict or block. The healthcare system, which was decimated during the war, struggles to cope with the high number of patients and a chronic shortage of personnel, medicines, medical equipment, and fuel. Aid organizations warn of the spread of infectious diseases and a deep mental health crisis.

In January 2026, an official announcement was made that the Comprehensive Plan for Ending the Conflict in Gaza had entered Phase Two, following the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and the exchange of bodies of those killed on both sides. Yet Gaza’s civilians remain in crowded displacement sites, with no protection or any ability to influence their future. While Hamas effectively controls the Palestinian side of the Yellow Line, on the other side the Israeli military is entrenching its hold through continued intensive destruction, the construction of new outposts, and the placement of earth berms along the Yellow Line, which the Israeli Chief of Staff referred as “the new border.”

The restrictions Israel imposes on the entry of goods, food, and relief supplies directly impact the humanitarian crisis in the Strip, which took a turn for the worse as Israel launched its attack on Iran in late February 2026. Operations at the crossings were significantly scaled back, exacerbating the existing food shortage in Gaza. Additionally, Israel rarely permits medical evacuations out of the Strip for the sick and wounded and denies access to medical treatment in the West Bank altogether. Currently, more than 18,500 patients are awaiting medical evacuation, and many die while they wait. The war and displacement also have unique and grave implications for women and girls in Gaza, including on their mental and physical health; personal safety; and pregnancy, birth, and motherhood.

As an occupying power encircling the Strip and fully controlling movement to and from it, and in accordance with the provisions of international law and with the orders and advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, Israel has a duty to protect the civilian population. This also includes immediately allowing the entry of aid and goods in the necessary quantities; allowing the evacuation of the sick and wounded in need of medical treatment outside the Strip, including and especially to the West Bank and Israel (a necessary solution in light of the scale of needs); and lift the significant restrictions on goods cleared for entry into Gaza in order to enable infrastructure rehabilitation and reconstruction. Israel must also take steps towards Gaza’s rehabilitation and the establishment of a compensation program for the extensive destruction of civilian infrastructure, homes, roads, and businesses.

Israel must investigate its conduct, including that of the political and military leadership, during the years of the war, acknowledge war crimes and violations of international law, and draw the necessary conclusions. Israel also has a duty to ensure that those responsible are held to account. Should Israel choose to ignore this duty, the responsibility will pass to the international community.

For more on the harm to the civilian population in Gaza during the war:

The Platform, Israeli NGOs for Human Rights: State of the Occupation Report 2025: 58 Years of Occupation, The Two-Year War in Gaza, November 2025