More than a month after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire was declared in Gaza, the battered enclave remains gripped by violence, humanitarian catastrophe, and mounting uncertainty about its future. Despite the truce, Israeli airstrikes have continued to pound the territory, with deadly attacks reported as recently as November 20, 2025, and both sides trading blame for repeated violations. For Gaza’s more than two million residents, the promise of peace has so far delivered little relief from daily hardship and fear.
According to Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, Israeli Defence Forces launched a series of strikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis on November 19 and 20, killing at least 33 Palestinians within a 12-hour period. Medics reported that ten people died in the Zeitoun suburb of Gaza City, two in Shejaia, and the remainder—including women and children—in two separate attacks in Khan Younis. Hospital officials at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis confirmed that four airstrikes on tents sheltering displaced families killed 17 people, while two airstrikes in Gaza City took the lives of another 16, among them seven children and three women.
“Everyone was screaming … people were in pieces. Paramedics couldn’t figure out what [or who] to carry,” recounted Kifah Mahmoud, a grandmother sheltering in a tent with her orphaned grandchildren, as told to CBC News. “We had no notice. We were just sitting in the tent, praying.”
These attacks, some of the deadliest since the ceasefire began on October 10, 2025, followed Israeli claims that its soldiers came under fire in Khan Younis. The military responded with what it described as targeted strikes on Hamas positions. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned, “Israel will respond with great force,” after Hamas militants reportedly attacked Israeli troops east of the so-called yellow line that separates Israeli-occupied and Palestinian-controlled areas of Gaza, as reported by CNN.
Hamas, for its part, condemned the latest strikes as a “shocking massacre” and denied firing toward Israeli troops. The group called on the United States to “honour its stated commitments and exert immediate pressure on Israel to enforce the ceasefire and halt its attacks,” according to CBC News. A U.S. official, speaking anonymously, countered that “Hamas was aiming to break the ceasefire and not fulfill its commitment to demilitarize. These desperate tactics will fail.” The back-and-forth accusations underscore the fragility of the truce and the deep mistrust that continues to fuel the conflict.
Since the ceasefire’s inception, violence has never fully ceased. Palestinian health authorities report that more than 300 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 10, nearly half of them in a single day last week when Israel retaliated for an attack on its troops. Meanwhile, Israel says three of its soldiers have died since the truce began. According to Business Standard, Israel has carried out 393 attacks on Gaza in violation of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire, resulting in 280 deaths and 672 injuries.
Humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire. The territory’s healthcare system teeters on the brink of collapse, with hospitals overwhelmed by casualties and shortages of critical supplies. The number of injuries since the start of the offensive on October 7, 2023, has soared to 170,745, according to MNA. Many victims remain trapped under rubble as rescue teams struggle to reach them. Food shortages are acute, exacerbated by Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries, and infrastructure destruction has left many homeless and displaced.
Water scarcity is another pressing crisis. Early in the war, Israel halted all water and electricity supplies to Gaza, only partially easing the blockade later. Most of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure is destroyed, and fuel for generators—crucial for pumping water from aquifers—is rarely available due to Israeli restrictions. On November 18, a company operating water desalination plants serving nearly half of Gaza’s population resumed operations after a staff member detained by Hamas-led security was released, according to CBC News. The company’s work is vital, as it owns three major desalination plants, 80 smaller ones, and a fleet of trucks distributing water across the territory.
The overall death toll since the war erupted on October 7, 2023, stands at more than 69,000 Palestinians, with many still missing and presumed buried under debris, as reported by Between The Lines. In Israel, 1,139 people were killed and over 250 taken captive during the initial Hamas-led attacks that triggered the conflict. Since the ceasefire, 25 hostages’ remains have been returned to Israel, while three more are yet to be recovered. Hamas returned 20 living hostages on October 13, 2025.
The violence has not been confined to Gaza. Israeli settler and army violence in the occupied West Bank has surged, resulting in over 1,000 Palestinian deaths since October 2023. The escalation has been accompanied by intensified property seizures, home demolitions, and the forcible displacement of thousands of West Bank residents.
The international community has tried to intervene, but progress remains elusive. On November 17, the United Nations Security Council voted to support a U.S. plan to create and deploy an international stabilization force to Gaza. The blueprint, part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for post-war Gaza, envisions an international force providing security, a transitional authority, and a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state. Yet, implementation details remain vague, and Hamas has rejected the plan, arguing that its mandate for disarmament “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation.”
Meanwhile, the broader region has felt the reverberations of the Gaza conflict. Israeli airstrikes have also targeted southern Lebanon, where, according to Al Jazeera, strikes hit a Palestinian refugee camp and killed 13 people in Ein el-Hilweh, marking the deadliest attack on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago. Israel maintains that Hezbollah is trying to reestablish itself in southern Lebanon, citing weapons facilities embedded among civilians as justification for the strikes.
For ordinary Palestinians, the cycle of violence, loss, and displacement seems endless. At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Abir Abu Moustapha mourned her three children and husband, all killed in a strike on their tent. “My children are gone. What can I say? And my husband, my most precious. May God have mercy on them,” she told the Associated Press. “How was it my children’s fault that they had to die? Why was it their fault that they died in front of my eyes?”
While the ceasefire has reduced the intensity of fighting compared to the peak of the war, it has not delivered peace or security for Gaza’s civilians. The international community faces a daunting challenge: how to move from a fragile truce to a sustainable solution that addresses the humanitarian crisis, restores stability, and lays the groundwork for lasting peace. Until then, for Gaza’s people, each day brings new uncertainty, hardship, and the hope that the world will not look away.