Published on January 17, 2026
Sitting in his Gaza City tent, Mahmoud Abdel Al expresses his frustration and concern, as the situation in the Palestinian enclave remains unchanged since the implementation of the United States-brokered ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.
“There is no difference between a war and a ceasefire, or between the first and second phase of an agreement: daily strikes continue,” Abdel Al told the AFP news agency. “Everyone is anxious and frustrated because nothing has changed.”
Israeli attacks have continued across Gaza, killing at least 463 Palestinians since a ceasefire began in October last year.
More than 14 people were killed in the coastal enclave, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency, after US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff announced the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan on Wednesday.
In a landscape of ruined buildings and rain-damaged makeshift camps, Palestinians express overwhelming bitterness. Although the intensity of Israeli attacks has decreased since the cease-fire, daily bombing continues.
On Friday, an AFP photographer documented members of the Hawli family walking through the rubble after five relatives were killed in an airstrike on their Deir al-Balah home in central Gaza.
According to the United Nations, daily living conditions are extremely precarious for most Palestinians, with more than 80 percent of infrastructure destroyed.
Water and electricity networks and waste management systems have collapsed. Hospitals functioned minimally, if at all, and educational activities existed only as occasional activities. According to UNICEF, every child in Gaza needs psychological support after more than two years of genocidal war.
“We lose real life,” said Nivin Ahmed, 47, who lives in a displacement camp in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi area, as she hopes to return to her home in Gaza City.
“I picture myself living in a prefabricated unit with my family, with electricity and water instead of our bomb house,” she said. “That’s when I think the war is over.”
In the meantime, she urged the world to put itself in the shoes of the Palestinians. “All we have is hope and patience,” she said.