“Gaza Is Facing Slow Death” as Israel Continues Ceasefire Violations, Killing 418 Palestinians and Blocking Vital Aid
Gaza (QNN)- Israeli has violated the Gaza ceasefire at least 969 times since the agreement took effect in early October, killing hundreds of civilians and restricting the entry of much-needed humanitarian aid. Authorities have warned that the Strip is "facing a slow death.”
Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Sunday that Israel has violated the agreement 969 times in just 80 days of the so-called ceasefire.
Attacks and Killings
The Office said Israel shot at civilians 298 times, raided residential areas beyond the “yellow line” 54 times, bombed and shelled Gaza 455 times, and demolished people’s properties on 162 occasions.
It added that Israel had also abducted 45 Palestinians from Gaza over the past two months.
At least 418 Palestinians have been killed and 1,141 others wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the ceasefire began, it added.
Humanitarian Aid
Israel has also continued to block essential humanitarian aid from entering the enclave despite the ceasefire stipulating that “full aid will be immediately sent into the Gaza Strip”.
The Office warned that Gaza is “facing slow death.”
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, over a 80-day period, 19,764 trucks entered Gaza out of 43,800, averaging 253 trucks per day. That is only 42 percent of the trucks allocated.
In addition, Israel has blocked essential and nutritious food items, including meat, dairy, and vegetables, crucial for a balanced diet. Instead, non-nutritious foodstuffs are being allowed, such as snacks, chocolate, crisps, and soft drinks.
Shelters
The Office has warned of a rapidly deepening and unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, as Israel continues to close border crossings and block the entry of tents, mobile homes, caravans, and other essential shelter materials, “in clear violation of existing agreements and international humanitarian law.”
The Office warning comes as a polar low-pressure system with heavy rain and strong winds hit the Strip on Saturday, leaving displaced Palestinians freezing and flooding.
Local sources confirmed hundreds of tents were flooded across Gaza over the heavy rain and winds.
The Mayor of Gaza City said thousands of families are now left living in the open after their tents were flooded.
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The enclave is imminently facing freezing temperatures, rain and strong winds, as the authorities warn the downpour could intensify into a full-blown storm.
Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal warned, “The coming hours are dangerous, and we may witness the disaster again, with displaced families being flooded and their tents destroyed due to the approaching low-pressure system. We are facing a dire situation, and global action is urgently needed to save Gaza from flooding.”
The rescue group noted that the “worn-out tents could not withstand the strong winds, with some torn or blown away, leaving entire families in the open."
Ismail Al-Thawabta, head of the Gaza Government Media Office, said “warnings of a humanitarian disaster are highly likely” as the heavy storm hit the enclave.
Videos circulating on social media show tents being blown away, strong winds scattering belongings, displaced people pleading for help, and children shivering from the cold.
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On Saturday night in Gaza City, a Palestinian child fell into a deep water well. Despite hours of desperate efforts, the Civil Defense team was only able to recover him dead.
Ibrahim Abu al-Reesh, head of field operations for the Civil Defense in the Gaza Port area, said that his teams responded to various distress calls as weather conditions got harsher in places where displaced people set up fragile tents.
“We worked hard to cover some of these damaged tents with plastic sheets after they were flooded by rainwater,” he said.
Earlier this month, the heavy rains flooded tents and shelters across Gaza, where most of the buildings have been destroyed or damaged during the genocide. According to the Office, at least 20 people have died from hypothermia and collapsing buildings, including two children. Many of the structures that collapsed were already severely damaged by Israeli airstrikes and could not withstand the heavy rain and strong winds. In several cases, residents were trapped under the rubble, while others were injured or killed.
The Office said 49 buildings have also collapsed due to the stroms.
Meanwhile, more than 127,000 tents have torn outl, leaving over 1.5 million displaced people without even the most basic level of protection.
Israel’s two-year war has destroyed more than 80 percent of the structures across Gaza, forcing hundreds of thousands of families to take refuge in flimsy tents or overcrowded makeshift shelters.
Now, the humanitarian conditions continue to deteriorate as winter deepens amid an Israeli blockade despite the ceasefire with limited access to shelter materials, fuel, and medical care.
Humanitarian groups have immediately urged Israel to allow unimpeded deliveries of aid to Gaza.
But the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says the Israeli occupation government has blocked it from bringing aid directly into Gaza.
“People have reportedly died due to the collapse of damaged buildings where families were sheltering. Children have reportedly died from exposure to the cold,” UNRWA said.
“This must stop. Aid must be allowed in at scale, now.”
What Hamas Says?
Last week, senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad warned that Israel’s “blatant and outrageous violations” threaten the ceasefire agreement.
Hamad, who is also a member of Hamas’s negotiating team, said Israel manipulated the terms of the ceasefire agreement. Mediators confirmed that Hamas did not commit a single violation of the agreement and fully adhered to it, he noted.
“The occupation army’s repeated violations are clear evidence that they are planned by the government.”
According to Hamad, the violations include killings, executions, gunfire against civilians, shelling, targeted attacks, and assassinations inside the Gaza Strip. They have also involved crossing the yellow line. In addition, Israel has prevented the entry of aid under the pretext that it was used for other purposes. Israel is still concealing information regarding prisoners and missing people, he noted.
Hamad said that Israel violates the ceasefire 25 times a day.
He said, “Israel killed civilians, particularly women and children, on purpose," and “wiped out entire families.”
The official confirmed that the group provided the names of those killed by Israel during the ceasefire “in order to prove that the vast majority of them were civilians. We did, in fact, submit their names and ages, which clearly demonstrated that the killings were deliberately targeting civilians.”
Among them 36% were children, 15% women, 4% elderly, and 37% civilian men, “confirming that civilians were targeted despite the ceasefire.”
Recently, the group’s Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya, confirmed that Israel’s violations risk jeopardising the ceasefire deal in Gaza and the move towards the second and more complicated phase of the fragile agreement.
He called on mediators – US President Donald Trump in particular – “to work on obliging Israel to respect the ceasefire and commit to it”.
Netanyahu Visting Washington
The warnings also come as ICC-wanted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived on Sunday in the United States to meet with President Trump.
Netanyahu is to hold talks with Trump at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday as Washington pushes to complete the first phase of the Gaza truce.
According to reports, Netanyahu aims to convince Trump that only the threat of war can bring peace.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Netanyahu has asked for unchecked US diplomatic and military support.
