Hundreds of Palestinian civilians continue to die daily in Israeli attacks
After two years of conflict that destroyed the Gaza Strip, Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire agreement on October 10. Five months after the beginning of the truce, the Palestinian territory is still the scene of one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies in the world.
Although the intensity of the bombings has decreased, hundreds of Palestinian civilians continue to die daily in Israeli attacks.
For Jonathan Fowler, spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the ceasefire does not translate into daily life in Gaza. “The situation in Gaza remains absolutely catastrophic. Humanitarian aid is not enough. It is not coming in on the scale that is needed. There are still a lot of restrictions on the types of assistance that are allowed,” Fowler told Young Pan.
After completing two years of conflict, the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip exceeded 70 thousand. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, more than 600 bodies have been recovered from the rubble since the ceasefire came into force. The total number of victims is still expected to increase drastically.
Palestinians carry a body after an Israeli military attack in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on February 27, 2026. Photo: Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP
On the Israeli side, 1,665 were killed, 1,200 of them in the first hours of Hamas’ attack on Israel alone. Another 250 were kidnapped on October 7, 2023.
The doctor and president of the Brazil-Palestine Institute (Ibraspal), Ahmed Shehada, says that Israel’s objective continues to be the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. “Gaza continues to be subjected to a systematic and deliberate process of social, economic and structural destruction. With the ceasefire, the suffering diminished, but never ended”, he assessed.
He argues that the Palestinian population is also victim of a process of dehumanization. “Right now, we don’t have those high numbers recorded over the two years of war. There is a lot of talk about death tolls. However, each victim had a name, story, dreams and family,” Shehada told the reporter.
‘Attack on life and the possibility of a future’
Mohammed Omer Almoghayer. Photo: Disclosure
In an interview with Young Panaward-winning Palestinian writer Mohammed Omer Almoghayer recounts the pain of the Palestinian population as they live under constant threat, amid the fragile ceasefire. “My life has been shaped by displacement. Palestine, for me, is more than a political issue; it is a lived condition of fragmentation and resistance,” he said.
The Palestinian writing notes that a ceasefire that represents only the “suspension of bombings”, without dismantling the structures that made the devastation possible, is not peace. “This is the result of a prolonged siege since 2007, in addition to the occupation and confinement imposed since 1967,” he said.
For Almoghayer, the condition of Gaza cannot be reduced to a humanitarian “crisis”, as if it were a natural disaster. “When infrastructure, homes, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, churches and archives are destroyed, What is under attack is not just life, but continuity — the very possibility of a future”, he argues.
On the verge of collapse
At least 92% of homes in the Gaza Strip were destroyed or damaged during the war, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Countless people have been displaced multiple times, also resulting in a shortage of shelter.
Civil Defense members use an excavator to search for the remains of victims in the rubble of a destroyed building in the Bureij refugee camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip. Photo: Eyad Baba/AFP
Professor José Niemeyer, from the Brazilian Institute of Capital Markets (Ibmec) in Rio, highlights that the Gaza’s infrastructure was completely destroyed over the course of the war. “The Israeli Armed Forces had an agenda not only of attacks with air and missiles, but also of invasion and destruction with heavy military weapons, mainly tanks,” he declared.
According to Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA spokesperson, the few Operating medical units in the region are on the verge of collapse. “This would already be a problem in normal times. There is a huge increase in trauma and war injuries, in addition to the growth of infectious diseases and people living in unsanitary conditions, many of them malnourished”, he assesses.
Claudio Lottenberg, doctor and president of the Israeli Confederation of Brazil (Conib), recognizes that a largely deteriorated territory tends to face serious health risks. “When there is destruction of infrastructure, energy and water shortages, loss of professionals, unstable supply chains and insecurity, the system enters a zone of ‘near collapse’, even if there are still partially functioning units”, he explains.
The doctor also states that the fact that no hospital is fully operational and that some of the units are only partially functioning already constitutes a “system at extreme risk”.
In Lottenberg’s assessment, which slows down the release of materials for the reconstruction of the health system are items classified as “sensitive”, that undermine Israel’s security. “Reconstruction needs to move faster, but with a verification mechanism that protects hospitals from any instrumentalization [terrorista]because they cannot be a ‘grey zone’”, he argues.
Blocking humanitarian aid
The ceasefire in Gaza and the US-backed peace plan did not guarantee even the most basic conditions for survival in the Palestinian enclave. Israel continues to allow restricted entry of humanitarian aid trucks per day and maintains the Rafah crossing under its control.
Another fundamental right violated is that of food, according to Ahmed Shehada, since Israel controls the number of food trucks allowed to enter Gaza. The doctor and president of Ibraspal recalls that the agreement signed provided for the entry of a greater volume of humanitarian aid, which, according to him, has not materialized in practice.
Children watch as injured Palestinians prepare to leave Gaza for treatment through the Rafah crossing, after it was opened by Israel to a limited number of people, in the southern Gaza Strip, on February 8, 2026. Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP
Israel, in turn, justifies the blockade and restrictions as security measuresalleging the risk of diversion, smuggling and entry of “dual-use” items, materials that could be converted for military purposes. “There are Israeli analyzes that describe interruptions and limitations as an instrument of pressure to reduce supply lines to the terrorist group Hamas and influence negotiations,” said Claudio Lottenberg, president of Conib.
On the other hand, Lottenberg states that humanitarian organizations maintain that “broad and unpredictable restrictions” increase preventable mortality. “As a doctor, I would put it like this: screening is legitimate; blocking the essentials, no — because in health, delays turn into real damage”, he assessed.
Future remains uncertain
Amid the fragility of the ceasefire and the complexity of the next steps in the territory, the future of the population remains uncertain and vulnerable.
Palestinian writer Mohammed Omer Almoghayer claims that a “violence of this magnitude” against the population does not end when the bombs stop. “Violence takes hold in the body and in the imagination; it continues to live in us, Palestinians, since birth. Generations grow up under surveillance, threat and humiliation”, he expresses.
In this scenario, the implementation of the two-state solution – one Israeli and the other Palestinian, living side by side in peace – becomes increasingly distant.
Impacted by the escalation of the conflict in Gaza and the expansion of Israeli colonies in the West Bank, several countries recognized the Palestinian State last year. To date, more than 140 nations have recognized Palestine, including Brazil.
For Almoghayer, recognition is not symbolic, as it is linked to sovereignty, rights, legal resources and material survival. “True recognition would mean equality before the law, freedom of movement and self-determination. The failure of the Palestinian cause is a failure of humanity itself”, argues the writer.
