Since a US-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect last month, Israel has continued to Deadly attacks across GazaAt least 236 Palestinians were killed and more than 600 wounded, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
In the last 24 hours alone, hospitals in Gaza reported three more deaths and three more bodies were recovered from collapsed buildings. Another person injured in earlier attacks died, the ministry said on Sunday.
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Among the latest casualties was a Palestinian man killed in an Israeli drone strike in northern Gaza’s Shujaya neighborhood. The Israeli army said it crossed the “yellow line” marking the ceasefire border and contacted its troops without providing evidence.
In a statement, the army claimed the man “advanced towards forces in the northern Gaza Strip, posing an immediate threat”, prompting airstrikes to “eliminate the threat”.
Gaza’s health ministry also said that since the ceasefire began, the bodies of 500 Palestinians – victims of Israel’s two-year genocidal war – have been pulled from the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings. Constant bombardment which destroyed much of the enclave.
Separately on Sunday evening, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said on X that three bodies of dead Israeli detainees had been received in Israel by the Red Cross.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel must now return the bodies of 45 dead Palestinian prisoners, 15 for every Israeli captive returned.
Accused of US misinformation
Tensions escalated after the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) accused Hamas of looting an aid truck in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip without providing evidence. The claim follows the release of drone footage purportedly showing “suspected Hamas elements” commanding humanitarian supplies.
Gaza’s government media office denied the allegations and accused Washington of spreading false information to discredit the Palestinian Authority.
“This allegation is completely false and fabricated from the ground up and is part of a systematic media disinformation campaign aimed at distorting the image of the Palestinian police forces,” the media office said.
It said Gaza’s police were “carrying out their national and humanitarian duty to secure aid and protect aid convoys,” despite continued Israeli interference.
“The police apparatus is doing its best to control matters despite the continued Israeli interference in the internal sector, with multiple objectives including engineering starvation by obstructing aid delivery,” the statement said.
The health crisis is becoming more serious
Hospitals in Gaza, already crippled by months of war and blockade, are overwhelmed. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 16,500 patients in need of specialized treatment are trapped in the besieged enclave.
A recent United Nations update showed that as of September, Egypt had the largest number of Palestinian refugees seeking medical care – nearly 4,000 people. The United Arab Emirates received 1,450 cases, Qatar 970 and Turkey 437.
In Europe, Italy treated 201 Palestinian patients – the most among European states – but thousands more, including 3,800 children, are still awaiting urgent medical evacuation abroad.
A study published this week in The Lancet Medical Journal underscores the human toll Genocide of Israel in Gaza. The report found that Gaza has lost more than 3 million human lives since the conflict began in October 2023.
Researchers Sammy Zahran of Colorado State University and Ghassan Abu Sitah of the American University of Beirut analyzed data from 60,199 reported deaths between October 2023 and July 2025. Each death, they calculated, lost an average of 51 years of life—the vast majority being civilians.
More than a million of these life-years were lost among children under 15. The authors noted that their estimates were conservative and excluded deaths from starvation, lack of medicine, and infrastructure degradation under Israel’s siege.
A race against winter
As winter approaches, Gaza’s displaced families are struggling to rebuild any form of shelter amid Israel’s restrictions on building materials, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Al Khalili reports from Gaza City.
In Gaza’s largest urban center, the focus of Israeli carpet bombing from August to October this year, Khalid al-Dahdouh, 42, a father of five, has turned to traditional methods to build a small mud shelter for his family, using bricks salvaged from the rubble.
“We tried to rebuild because winter is coming,” Al-Dahdouh told Al Jazeera. “We only managed to lay a few rows of bricks – we didn’t have a tent or anything else. So, because there was no cement, we built a primitive structure out of mud. As you can see, it protects against cold, insects and rain – unlike a tent.”
“We are just trying to survive cold and hunger. Cease fire or not, Gaza is still under attack,” Al-Dahdouh said.
Inspired by him, his relative, Saif al-Bayek, attempted the same but ran out of usable material before the work was completed.
“The whole neighborhood is devastated,” Al-Bayek said. “We built a shelter out of mud using traditional methods, using whatever stone we could save, because there was not enough space to build a full room. Because of this, the structure is uneven, and the roof is hollow – if it rains heavily, water will come in.”
“Reconstruction efforts face serious challenges. Many families are forced to rely on primitive construction methods because they have no other option,” UN Development Program representative in Gaza Alessandro Maracic told Al Jazeera.
With hundreds of thousands of people still displaced, aid agencies warn that the situation could worsen as temperatures drop.
While the cease-fire has largely halted the bombing, Palestinians in Gaza say their suffering continues – with hunger, homelessness and the constant fear that Israel’s war could resume at any moment.