On October 10, 2025, Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza. Many hostages on both sides were released, people celebrated, and the attention of the world turned mostly from Gaza to other conflicts.
Israel has clearly taken advantage of that lack of scrutiny.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, since the ceasefire took effect, Israel has killed at least 464 Palestinians and injured 1,275. Al Jazeera calculates that Israel attacked Gaza on 86 of 101 days since the ceasefire.
Since the war first began, at least 71,548 people, including 20,179 children, have been killed. Approximately 171,353 have been injured.
Despite commitments given by Israel under the ceasefire agreement, aid to the territory is being severely limited. According to the Gaza government media office, only an average of 43 percent of the trucks allocated have actually been allowed to enter Gaza. Nutritious food items like meat, dairy, and vegetables are being blocked, while non-nutritious foods and snack foods are being allowed in.
Not content to attack and starve Gaza’s residents, on December 30, 2025, Israel announced that as a national security measure, it was banning 37 NGOs (non-governmental organizations) from operating in Gaza and the West Bank. Most provide medical treatment or other supports. Israel’s decision is going to make an already dire situation order of magnitude worse.
Health care infrastructure in Gaza, including most hospitals, has been destroyed, leaving the residents there living in what Forbes refers to as “a healthcare desert.” The wounded continue to suffer without treatment. Doctors are forced on a daily basis to amputate limbs that they otherwise could save. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, approximately 6,000 amputations have been recorded since the beginning of the current war.
Winter has now set in and with it, heavy rains and freezing temperatures. Thousands of households have been damaged by flooding and high winds. With almost all of Gaza’s housing destroyed by Israeli bombers, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forced to live in unsound, damaged buildings, in worn out tents, or entirely without shelter. Gaza’s groundwater has been poisoned by all the bombings; much of it is now toxic.
In theory, the truce remains in place. In reality, life for the residents of Gaza has not improved.
The United Nations has estimated Gaza’s reconstruction will cost $70 billion over decades. The cost will almost certainly be higher and so far, no work has been done. That is unlikely to happen any time soon, for fear of renewed Israeli bombing.
U.S. President Donald Trump has now announced the launch of Phase Two of his 20-Point Gaza Peace Plan, and has set about establishing a so-called ‘Board of Peace’ to oversee next steps. Trump will head this Board. Appointments to the group are for three years, but a $1 billion contribution will secure a permanent seat. Allegedly the funds will go to rebuilding Gaza. With Trump in control, it seems likely that turning part of Gaza into a Trump resort will become a priority.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has called the phase two ceasefire announcement ‘mostly symbolic.’ In other words, he is unlikely to change Israeli actions.
With much of the world preoccupied elsewhere and looking the other way, Gaza’s residents will continue to suffer and die while their homeland is irrevocably changed.
Daily atmospheric CO2 [Courtesy of CO2.Earth]
Latest daily total (January 20, 2026): 428.60ppm
One year ago (January 20, 2025): 426.74ppm
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