One year into ceasefire, vexed Gazans say they’re still living like war never ended

Nael, a resident of Gaza City, was preparing on Sunday to move back into his home, which suffered extensive damage from an Israeli airstrike during the Gaza war. To get his home at least somewhat habitable, Nael, who asked that his real name not be used, had installed tarps in place of the walls that had once protected him from the elements. A destroyed staircase was being replaced with metal stairs; Nael told The Times of Israel by phone that the new steps had cost him NIS 5,000, money he was forced to borrow from an acquaintance. “I’m going back to a half-destroyed house with a leaking roof, but it’s better than living in a tent or renting an apartment, which you can’t even find,” said the Gazan, who had been living in a rented apartment before his landlord asked him to move out. A year after a ceasefire ended two years of fighting that left Gaza in ruin, living conditions in the Strip remain as crude and rudimentary as Nael’s half-destroyed home, with hundreds of thousands still stuck in ramshackle housing and living in severely degraded conditions. Gazans and humanitarian monitors say poverty and unemployment remain rampant, with most still reliant on international aid; infrastructure is still in deep disrepair; lawlessness feels unchecked; Israeli airstrikes still constitute a near-daily menace; and hopes for a better horizon are dim as ever. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address Get it By signing up, you agree to the terms The lack of progress or improvement since the conflict ostensibly halted on October 10, 2025, has fueled disappointment and anger, according to Gazans who spoke to The Times of Israel. Women walk along a street surrounded by tents sheltering displaced Palestinians, in Gaza City, September 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi) At fault, they say, are all parties, including both Israel and Hamas, which continues to hold a significant degree of power over the rump of the Strip where nearly all 2 million Gazans now reside. “There’s anger at everyone,” said Ahmed, a Gazan who, like Nael, asked to be identified with a pseudonym. “Everyone in Gaza says nobody was honest with us. Everyone — Hamas, Fatah, the international community, the Arab countries — said they would help us.” Advertisement None came through. In October 2025, when the ceasefire took effect, the UN estimated that some 1.5 million people in Gaza were in need of emergency shelter assistance. A comprehensive May report by the World Bank and the United Nations concluded that the war had caused “catastrophic destruction of the housing stock.” The study found that more than 1.2 million Palestinians in Gaza — roughly 60 percent of the population — had lost their homes to Israeli bombardment. Others were rendered homeless by being unable to access properties in the part of the enclave that remained under the control of the IDF as part of the ceasefire. Tents housing displaced Palestinians are seen among homes destroyed during the recent war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza City, central Gaza Strip, September 3, 2026. (Ali Hassan/Flash90) A year later, the housing crisis remains severe: according to the UN’s Shelter Cluster, which monitors housing needs in the Strip, 65% of Gaza’s population — approximately 1.37 million people — are still living in tents and makeshift shelters that offer almost no protection from the elements. Among them is Ahmed, who has been living in a tent for the past several years. Advertisement Last winter, the tent collapsed under heavy rain. Now, before the rainy season has even begun, he said his main concern is rats getting inside, fearing they could harm his newborn daughter. An analysis published in August classified 94% of the population as having shelter needs ranging from inadequate provisions to critical deficiencies. A Palestinian vendor offers bottles of diesel for sale in al-Maghazi refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, August 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) “Gaza’s shelter crisis remains overwhelmingly severe and widespread,” the Shelter Cluster study reported. “Households require support not only to repair or replace temporary shelters, but also to restore the essential conditions that allow them to cook, sleep, maintain hygiene, store food and water, and live safely and with dignity.” Beyond housing, infrastructure has largely not been rebuilt. Immediately after the ceasefire, several humanitarian organizations carried out work to clear rubble and reopen main roads across the Strip to allow people to move around, but beyond that, there has been no large-scale rubble removal. According to a July 2026 OCHA report, only 1% of the rubble had been cleared from roads and essential facilities by that point. Palestinians walk past destroyed buildings from the recent war in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, September 8, 2026. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90) The electricity infrastructure has also not been restored, after 90% of it was destroyed amid the fighting, according to the UN. People rely on generators and solar panels, with some paying by the hour to use them, for example, to charge their phones. As for water, 71% of water and sanitation infrastructure had been damaged as of August 2026, according to the UN. Aside from parts of central Gaza, where the infrastructure has remained more or less intact for those still living in houses rather than tents, people buy water delivered by tanker trucks or rely on humanitarian organizations, just as they did during the war. ‘A ceasefire for one side only’ Meanwhile, persisting airstrikes by Israeli forces have Gazans feeling as if the ceasefire is only on paper anyway. Advertisement “They bomb every day,” Nael said. “There’s shelling at any moment, without warning. I walk down the street and I’m afraid. My children walk down the street and I’m afraid for them,” he said. Smoke and fire rises after a house was targeted by an Israeli strike in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on September 9, 2026. (BASHAR TALEB/AFP) The IDF says it carries out strikes in Gaza to thwart threats to troops and keep Hamas from rebuilding its military wing, but has also carried out attacks on figures identified as having participated in the October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel. Some 5,000 Gazans led by Hamas entered Israel during the attack, carrying out massacres in towns and music festivals and assaulting army positions. Some 1,200 people in Israel were killed in the attack and 251 were kidnapped to Gaza, triggering two years of war in the Strip. The IDF has not released figures on the number of strikes it has carried out in Gaza or the number of terror operatives it has killed since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025. People visit a memorial site for the female IDF surveillance soldiers who were murdered at the Nahal Oz military base during the October 7 massacre, near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, October 7, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, 1,488 people were killed and 5,281 wounded by Israeli strikes and gunfire between the start of the ceasefire and October 11, 2026. The ministry’s figures, which previously counted over 70,000 killed during the active phase of the war, do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel has expanded its control over the Strip during the ceasefire, from an initial 53% to around 63% currently. The IDF also now maintains some 40 military posts in the Israeli-held portion of Gaza. Gazans are not permitted to cross the boundary known as the Yellow Line into Israeli-controlled territory, and the IDF has previously said it opens fire on Gazans who attempt to cross it. The territory under Israeli control includes the entire eastern part of the Strip and the city of Rafah. Gaza’s roughly two million residents are now concentrated in western Gaza City, Khan Younis, the central Strip and al-Mawasi, an area southwest of Khan Younis where large tent camps were established early in the war and remain in place today. Palestinians inspect a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike late Saturday in Zawaida, central Gaza Strip, October 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Nael said that despite the ongoing dangers, people leave their homes and go about their daily lives. “People have gotten used to death. They’ve gotten used to the bombardment.” Advertisement Anas Arafat, a Gaza City resident, lives in a tent with his family and is looking for an apartment to rent. “In practice, there is no ceasefire,” he said. “The Palestinian side is the only one committed to the ceasefire, not the Israeli side,” he told The Times of Israel. That sentiment is also reflected in a recent survey of Gaza residents. A poll conducted by the East Jerusalem-based Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre, published in September 2026, found that 66% of respondents in Gaza believed the Palestinian leadership’s top priority should be ending the war in the Strip, reflecting the sense in Gaza that the war never halted. The survey did not specify which Palestinian leadership it was referring to. While Hamas has not fired rockets at Israel for over a year, Israeli security officials have recently warned that the terror group is rebuilding its military capabilities, including by recruiting new operatives, conducting training and restoring military infrastructure. Palestinians carry the bodies of Hamas terrorists Mohannad Abu Foul and Izz al-Din al-Bik, during their funeral after they were killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, September 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi) Israel has insisted that troops will not pull back until Hamas disarms. It has also refused to allow the reconstruction of the Strip to move forward until the terror group gives up its weapons and cedes power, a central tenet of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan meant to be administered by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. Hamas out, technocrats not yet in In conversations with Gaza residents, Hamas does not emerge as the first party they blame for the situation. Nael said he was “angry at the whole world.” “It’s been three years, and nobody has delivered anything. They set up a ‘Board of Peace,’ with [the Board’s High Representative for Gaza Nickolay] Mladenov and Trump — nothing came of it. Just statements and lies,” he said. While most Gazans see Israel as the main author of their woes, recent polls among Gaza residents have also shown a gradual, if slow, decline in support for Hamas. The tent where Ahmed lives in the Gaza Strip, October 2026. (Courtesy) In the August 2026 survey conducted by PCPSR, 38% of Gaza respondents said they were satisfied with Hamas’s performance during the war against Israel, down from 51% in October 2025. In the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre survey, just 9.9% of Gaza respondents named Hamas when asked an open-ended question regarding which political party they believed in. The survey was the first to include Gazans, making a direct year-on-year comparison impossible. Nearly half of Gaza respondents — 49.3% — predicted separately that the Strip would come under the control of the international community “after the war.” The survey was conducted in August 2026, making it unclear what respondents understood by “after the war,” though they may have been referring to the near future under the existing ceasefire. Under the ceasefire agreement, administrative responsibility is meant to transfer to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. The body of nonpartisan Palestinian technocrats, known as NCAG, was established in January 2026 as part of Trump’s peace plan. National Committee for the Administration of Gaza chief commissioner Ali Shaath holds up the NCAG’s mission statement as he is flanked by members of the panel on January 17, 2026. (Ali Shaath/X) But 10 months after its establishment, the committee’s members have yet to enter Gaza or assume actual governing authority, despite Hamas announcing in July that it was dissolving the governmental emergency committee that had administered the Strip on its behalf during the war and that it was willing to transfer its powers