Since the US-brokered ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect last month, Israel has continued deadly attacks across Gaza, killing at least 236 Palestinians and wounding more than 600, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
In the past 24 hours alone, hospitals in Gaza have reported three more deaths and recovered three more bodies from beneath collapsed buildings. The ministry announced Sunday that another person died from wounds sustained in an earlier attack.
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The latest casualties include a Palestinian man killed in an Israeli drone strike in the Shujaya area of northern Gaza. Without providing any evidence, the Israeli military said he had crossed the “yellow line” marking the cease-fire border and approached Israeli forces.
The military said in a statement that the man had “advanced towards forces in the northern Gaza Strip and posed an imminent threat”, prompting airstrikes “to eliminate the threat”.
The Gaza Ministry of Health also reported that 500 Palestinian bodies have been recovered from under the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings since the ceasefire began. They are victims of Israel’s two-year genocidal war and continued shelling that has left much of the enclave in ruins.
Separately, on Sunday night, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced on X news agency that the bodies of three deceased Israeli prisoners of war had been returned to Israel through the Red Cross.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel must now return the bodies of 45 Palestinian prisoners of war (15 bodies for each Israeli prisoner).
US disinformation accusations
Tensions escalated after the US Central Command (CENTCOM) accused Hamas, without providing evidence, of looting an aid truck in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. The claims were made following the release of drone footage purportedly showing “suspected Hamas elements” stealing humanitarian supplies.
The Gaza government media office dismissed the allegations and accused the US government of spreading disinformation to smear the Palestinian Authority.
“This accusation is completely false and fabricated to its core, and was carried out within the framework of an organized media disinformation campaign aimed at distorting the image of the Palestinian Police Force,” the media office said.
It added that despite Israel’s continued interference, Gaza police are “carrying out their national and humanitarian obligations to secure aid and escort relief vehicles.”
“Police are making every effort to control the situation despite continued Israeli interference in the country with several objectives, including interfering with the delivery of aid and inducing famine,” the statement added.
health crisis worsens
Hospitals in the Gaza Strip, already crippled by months of war and blockade, remain overwhelmed. More than 16,500 patients in need of specialized treatment remain trapped within the besieged enclave, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to a recent UN update, by September Egypt had taken in the largest number of Palestinian refugees for medical purposes, at around 4,000. The United Arab Emirates received 1,450 patients, Qatar 970 and Turkiye 437 patients.
In Europe, Italy has treated 201 Palestinian patients, the most of any European country, but thousands more, including 3,800 children, are still awaiting urgent medical evacuation.
A study published this week in the medical journal Lancet highlighted the human cost of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The report revealed that an astonishing 3 million years of human life has been lost in Gaza since the start of the conflict in October 2023.
Researchers Sammy Zahran from Colorado State University and Ghassan Abu Shitta from the American University of Beirut analyzed data on 60,199 deaths recorded between October 2023 and July 2025. They calculated that each death cost an average of 51 years of life, most of them civilians.
More than 1 million of these life years were lost among children under the age of 15. The authors noted that their estimates are conservative and exclude deaths from starvation, medicine shortages, and infrastructure collapse under Israeli siege.
fight against winter
As winter approaches, displaced families in Gaza are scrambling to rebuild all forms of shelter amid Israel’s restrictions on building materials, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Al Hariri reports from Gaza City.
In Gaza’s largest urban center, which was the epicenter of Israeli carpet bombing from August to October this year, Khalid al-Dahadou, a 42-year-old father of five, turned to the traditional method of building small mud shelters for his family using bricks salvaged from the rubble.
“We tried to rebuild because winter is approaching,” Al-Dahadou told Al-Jazeera. “We managed to lay down a few rows of bricks. We don’t have any tents. So, since we don’t have cement, we built primitive structures out of mud. As you can see, unlike tents, they protect us from the cold, insects and rain.”
“We are just trying to endure cold and hunger. Ceasefire or not, Gaza is still under attack,” al-Dahadou said.
Inspired by him, his relative Saif al-Bayek attempted a similar effort, but the available materials ran out before it could be completed.
“The whole neighborhood is in ruins,” Albaek said. “We didn’t have enough stone to build a complete room, so we used whatever stones we could salvage and built shelters out of mud, using traditional methods. As a result, the structure is uneven and the roof is full of gaps that allow water to seep in during heavy rains.”
“Reconstruction efforts face tough challenges. Many families are forced to rely on primitive construction methods because they have no other options,” Alessandro Mrakic, the United Nations Development Programme’s representative in Gaza, told Al Jazeera.
Hundreds of thousands of people remain evacuated and aid agencies warn that the situation could worsen as temperatures drop.
Although a cease-fire has halted heavy shelling, Palestinians in Gaza say their suffering continues due to hunger, homelessness and constant fear that Israeli war may flare up again at any moment.
