Gaza ceasefire crumbles as Israeli strikes kill 1,400 despite peace deal stall

A year after the ceasefire began in October 2024, Fida al-Toutah was combing her daughter's hair in a tent in central Gaza when gunfire erupted around her. Her son Ezz heard his mother shout for everyone to get down, but the bullets came too fast. He only understood what had happened when he saw his younger brother's hands covered in blood—his mother's blood. Fida, a mother of five, died from a gunshot wound to the head on September 21st. She is one of more than 1,400 Palestinians killed in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to the Gaza health ministry, figures the UN considers reliable.

The ceasefire was supposed to end a war that had consumed three years and claimed more than 74,000 lives. It was meant to be a turning point: thousands of Palestinians held by Israel would be released, the remaining 48 hostages held in Gaza would come home, and the bombardment would stop. For a moment, it did. Large-scale strikes ceased. Humanitarian aid flowed in. Medical supplies arrived. But the ceasefire never became peace. Israel has continued launching strikes in Gaza almost every day. In the past week alone, more than 30 people were killed. The Israeli military says it is targeting Hamas operatives and accuses Hamas of violating the agreement. Hamas says it will not hand over heavy weapons until Israel ends all aggression and withdraws its forces. The second phase of the peace deal has stalled, locked in a dispute neither side will break.

Fida's husband, Ahed, watched the ceasefire collapse around him. "It is all lies," he said. "Every day there's a shooting. Every day there is killing and death lurking around." When the BBC asked the Israeli Defense Forces about Fida's death, they said they had no record of it. Her brother Ibrahim stood outside the tent and pointed to the holes he said were made by a volley of bullets. "This tent is just a piece of cloth," he said. "Imagine that a military vehicle came down here and fired a spray of bullets. There was also gunfire coming from the sky, from above, from quadcopters, and it was directed at unarmed civilians." Fida was the fourth of Ibrahim's siblings to be killed since the war began. The family has moved seven times, fleeing from one neighborhood to another, but safety has remained out of reach.

On the same day Fida died, a 14-year-old boy named Ismail al-Bardawil was shot dead in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah. His family told the BBC he was killed by Israeli forces while fishing in the Mediterranean Sea with his brothers, about 20 meters from shore. He is one of more than 300 children killed since the ceasefire began. The IDF said it had no information about this incident either. Both Fida and Ismail lived near the Yellow Line, the boundary that separates areas controlled by the Israeli military from areas held by Hamas. These areas are the most dangerous in Gaza because Israeli forces have opened fire there repeatedly. But there are few options to move. Gaza's 2.1 million people are now squeezed into less than 40 percent of the territory, according to the UN. The strip was densely populated before the war. Now it is suffocating.

Amal Alabadla was an architect with a comfortable apartment before the war. Now she lives in a tent on the coastline, raising two boys alone. Her husband was outside Gaza when the fighting began and they have not been reunited in three years. Her three brothers, who helped her care for the children, were killed in separate attacks before the ceasefire. "Every time the rains come, it gets flooded," she said of her tent. "I feel very scared when the wind is strong because our tent gets destroyed or damaged." During winter, her son suffers epilepsy seizures from the cold. She struggles to keep him dry and warm. "Before the war, I had a job, a house, an ordinary life, but then everything turned upside down," she said. "Now we have no hope, nothing. It's only about survival day by day, to keep my kids alive, clean, healthy and fed." Some camps have been built below sea level and face even greater risk of flooding.

The October 2025 peace deal promised reconstruction, but rebuilding has not begun. It remains stuck in limbo, caught between competing demands. In May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had directed the military to increase the area of Gaza under Israeli control to 70 percent. Earlier this year, President Trump proposed a plan to disarm Hamas, but Netanyahu rejected it in August, saying no military withdrawal would happen until Hamas was "genuinely" disarmed. Trump's Board of Peace has also proposed a recovery plan worth $2.45 billion, but one year after the ceasefire and three years after the war began, many Palestinians see no evidence that anything will change. "We are struggling and not being allowed to rebuild," Amal said. "I don't think they are telling us the truth about allowing us to rebuild a safe future for our children."