Displaced Palestinians fill cans with drinking water in the Khan Younis neighborhood in Southern Gaza on July 4, 2026. One year after the signing of the Gaza ceasefire, Palestinians in the strip are still enduring Israeli violence, writes Alexander Langlois. (Shutterstock/Anas-Mohammed)

One Year On, the Gaza Ceasefire Remains a Cruel Joke

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For many Palestinians, military occupation and strikes, along with supply shortages, remain facts of life a year after the official end of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.

Just over one year has passed since the so-called ceasefire in Gaza began on October 10, 2025. In that time, the deal and US President Donald Trump’s supposed 20-point peace plan have made minimal progress in seriously ending the Israel-Hamas war or Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Instead, a dangerous status quo has settled into place, in which Israel’s occupation of most of the Gaza Strip and its tightened blockade of the territory, alongside a broader assault on the international legal system, represent a direct threat to Palestinian life as Israel aims to ultimately forcibly displace Gaza’s population and annex the territory.

The US government, of course, paints a different picture. Its statement on the 1st anniversary of the would-be ceasefire described “progress” and a “historic breakthrough” that has delivered “remarkable” results. That rhetoric largely matches comments from leading figures in and around the Trump administration and its so-called “Board of Peace,” the body established to govern post-war Gaza’s reconstruction. For officials like Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a lead negotiator on the Gaza file, even minimal progress should be applauded for, among other developments, moderately ending the violence.

Yet it is exactly this mindset that represents the greatest threat to Palestinians in Gaza today. Far from ending the violence, Israel has killed 1,505 Palestinians and injured another 5,332 since the ceasefire was announced, adding to the roughly 250,000 casualties since October 2023. It continues to bomb targets across the strip and has conducted........

© The National Interest