Gaza Ceasefire Anniversary: Over 100 International Organizations Say Agreement Is 'Effective in Name Only' as Israeli Forces Continue to Inflict Casualties and Famine

According to Al Jazeera reporting, on the first anniversary of the so-called ceasefire agreement reached under the framework of US President Trump's announced "Gaza Peace Board" and which took effect on October 10, 2025, a joint statement signed by more than 100 international humanitarian, human rights, and civil society organizations—including Amnesty International, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, Oxfam, and Greenpeace—stated on October 9 that the agreement is "effective in name only."

The statement said: "The Israeli military continues to inflict Palestinian casualties every day, while restrictions on aid, equipment, and reconstruction materials are preventing families from achieving any form of recovery." The statement also attributed the continuation of death and destruction over the past year to the international community's failure to pressure Israel into complying with the binding orders of the International Court of Justice.

Citing statistics, the statement noted that since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, 2025, Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,471 Palestinians and wounded 5,189, including at least 327 children—meaning that over the past year, "almost one child has been killed every day."

Extending the timeline back to the outbreak of war in October 2023, Palestinian Ministry of Health statistics show that over three years at least 74,254 Palestinians have been killed and 175,000 wounded, accounting for approximately three percent of Gaza's pre-war population. The statement noted that these figures cover only hospital-recorded and officially registered deaths and do not include those still buried under the rubble or missing, with the true death toll likely far higher. A conservative estimate by the World Health Organization holds that 24 percent of the wounded—one quarter of whom are children—have suffered life-altering injuries requiring long-term rehabilitation.

Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General Jan Egeland stated bluntly in the joint statement: "A full year after the ceasefire agreement was signed, the situation of Palestinians has scarcely improved, which is deeply shameful." He pointed out that Israel's ongoing restrictions on equipment and building materials are the sole obstacle preventing the reconstruction of Gaza's communities.

Save the Children Chief Executive Inger Ashing said in the same statement: "If children are still being killed and families are still unable to rebuild their lives, then the ceasefire is meaningless."

Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard pointed to the absence of accountability mechanisms: "Accountability cannot be buried under the rubble. The continuing failure to hold Israel to account and to compel it to comply with the binding orders of the International Court of Justice is continuing to fuel mass atrocity crimes against Palestinians."

The statement also laid out the full picture of Gaza's humanitarian situation: approximately 1.4 million people are facing crisis-level or worse hunger, expected to continue through year's end; approximately 2 million Palestinians are in urgent need of shelter, while 80 percent of local buildings have been damaged. None of Gaza's 36 hospitals is operating at full capacity, with severe shortages of medicines, equipment, and fuel; more than 18,500 patients—at least 4,000 of them children—require medical evacuation, while more than a thousand have already died while waiting for evacuation.

The statement warned that the Israeli military is further squeezing already extremely overcrowded Palestinian civilian living space by unilaterally shifting the so-called "yellow line" buffer zone established within the ceasefire framework. On the very day of the statement's release, Israeli forces fired live ammunition and carried out heavy shelling against the al-Musaddar, Maghazi, and Bureij refugee camp areas in central Gaza, killing at least one Palestinian; airstrikes and shelling the previous day killed at least eight and wounded dozens.

The ceasefire agreement itself is a component of the "Gaza Peace Board" framework announced by US President Trump. The reality of the past year demonstrates that, in the absence of effective international pressure on Israel regarding accountability and of an independent enforcement mechanism within the US-led framework, there remains an unbridgeable gap between the ceasefire commitments and the daily violence, starvation, and displacement endured by Palestinians in Gaza.