Gaza Humanitarian Crisis Worsens as Over 1,000 Killed Since Ceasefire

More than 1,000 people in Gaza have been killed since a US-brokered October “ceasefire” between Hamas and Israel was agreed, and the humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave remains catastrophic.

Israeli attacks across Gaza have killed 1,005 Palestinians since an agreement was reached, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

“We mourn as Gaza reaches yet another tragic milestone … Thousands more people who were told the worst was over are still burying their loved ones,” said Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director at Medical Aid for Palestinians.

The “ceasefire” has stopped major fighting, but no agreement has been reached to implement the second, and more sensitive, phase of the deal where Israeli soldiers would withdraw from Gaza and Hamas would disarm.

Since October, Israel has further entrenched its presence on the Palestinian territory and now controls 64 percent of the Gaza Strip, up from 53 percent envisaged under the deal.

Last Friday, dozens of families in eastern Gaza City were forced to flee after Israeli forces placed yellow cement blocks signalling a further expansion of the so-called “Yellow Line” to the west, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Earlier this month, Husam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told Al Jazeera that the group was not going to hand over its weapons yet, saying that the fate of its military arsenal would be decided following comprehensive discussions with other Palestinian factions.

The “ceasefire” was also supposed to offer an opportunity to begin the reconstruction of Gaza and of its healthcare system.

Only 20 of 37 hospitals in the besieged enclave remain partially functional, and there is not a single fully functioning hospital left, according to OCHA.

“As the bombs continued to fall and Gaza remained under a near-total siege, global leaders convinced themselves a piece of paper could substitute for accountability, for a lifted blockade, for medicine reaching the people who needed it,” said Shalltoot.

“Even now, as access into Gaza remains heavily restricted and aid is weaponised against a starving population, their silence continues.”

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza on October 23, more than 73,000 people have been killed. Most of the territory has been turned into rubble, and nearly 1.9 million people have been displaced.