Ceasefire Illusion: Gaza’s Genocide Continues Amid Fragile Truce and Reconstruction Battles 

Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in October 2025, Gaza remains engulfed in ongoing violence, humanitarian crises, and political disputes over reconstruction. Israeli forces have repeatedly violated the truce, while Amnesty International reports that genocidal acts—including killings, destruction of infrastructure, and deprivation of essential services—persist, leaving over 2.3 million Palestinians in extreme hardship.

Economic collapse, ruined homes, schools, and hospitals, combined with psychological trauma and intergenerational impacts, have created a “dangerous illusion” of normalcy. Competing reconstruction plans—many sidelining Palestinian agency—threaten to perpetuate suffering, while international actors continue arms transfers and diplomatic support for Israel. Experts stress that genuine recovery requires prioritizing Palestinian-led reconstruction, unrestricted humanitarian access, and addressing the root causes of the Israel-Palestine conflict to prevent further cycles of destruction.

Ceasefire Illusion: Gaza’s Genocide Continues Amid Fragile Truce and Reconstruction Battles 

In the aftermath of a ceasefire agreement that promised respite, Gaza remains trapped between ongoing violence and political maneuvering over its future. While bulldozers slowly clear apocalyptic landscapes of rubble and international agencies plan reconstruction, Amnesty International reports that Israel’s genocide against Palestinians continues unabated, with at least 347 Palestinians killed since the truce began . 

The fragile ceasefire, part of a U.S.-brokered 20-point plan, has created what UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini calls a “dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal” . Behind this illusion lies a devastating reality: ongoing attacks, calculated humanitarian restrictions, and competing visions for Gaza’s future that threaten to extend suffering indefinitely. 

The Façade of Normalcy: Ceasefire Reality Versus Rhetoric 

A Fragile Truce with Frequent Violations 

The ceasefire agreement, which took effect in October 2025, theoretically established designated withdrawal lines and humanitarian provisions. However, reality tells a different story. Israeli forces have violated the ceasefire more than 500 times in just seven weeks, conducting air strikes in southern and central Gaza, including in areas beyond agreed withdrawal lines . 

These aren’t isolated incidents but part of a documented pattern of disregard for the agreement. In one week alone, Israel reported killing 20 Hamas fighters in tunnels on the Israeli-occupied side of the yellow line in southern Gaza, while Hamas accused Israel of breaching the ceasefire by targeting these besieged fighters . 

The Humanitarian Smokescreen 

While some limited humanitarian improvements have occurred, they represent barely adequate survival mechanisms rather than genuine recovery. The World Food Programme reports that while food prices have dropped slightly, most households still cannot afford basic food items, and diets remain severely lacking in essential nutrition . 

According to UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq, “access to shelter, food and clean water remains challenging” as winter approaches . Perhaps most tellingly, humanitarian coordination efforts continue to face systematic obstruction—on a single Sunday in November, only two out of eight coordination attempts were fully facilitated, with one delayed for ten hours . 

Documenting Genocide: Beyond the Battlefield 

Calculated Destruction of Life-Sustaining Systems 

Amnesty International’s landmark investigation concluded that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide through three prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention: killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction . 

This systematic approach extends beyond military operations to encompass what Amnesty calls “a slow, calculated death” through the destruction of Gaza’s life-sustaining infrastructure . The organization documents how Israel has: 

• Destroyed or damaged almost 84% of health facilities  

• Rendered 63% of all Gaza’s buildings uninhabitable  

• Created conditions where cases of diarrhea among children under 5 increased from 2,000 per month to 71,000 

Economic Annihilation and Its Long-Term Impacts 

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) reports that Gaza’s economy collapsed by 83% in 2024, with GDP per capita falling to just $161—among the world’s lowest . The cumulative economic losses over the 2023-2024 period reached 87%, creating what the UN describes as “extreme, multidimensional impoverishment” for all 2.3 million residents . 

This economic devastation has erased 69 years of human development progress, representing what UNCTAD calls “the most severe crisis ever recorded” based on the Uppsala Conflict Data Programme dataset . Even under optimistic scenarios of double-digit growth backed by substantial foreign aid, Gaza would need decades to return to pre-October 2023 conditions . 

The Reconstruction Battle: Competing Visions for Gaza’s Future 

The Staggering Scale of Destruction 

The physical destruction of Gaza is almost incomprehensible in scale: 

• $70 billion estimated reconstruction needs  

• 60 million tonnes of rubble littering the Gaza Strip  

• 300,000 houses and apartments damaged or destroyed  

• 70% of all structures damaged including factories, hospitals, schools, and essential infrastructure 

As one Gaza resident, Abu Iyad Hamdouna, standing in the ruins of his home, expressed with exhausted resignation: “At this rate, I think it’ll take 10 years… We’ll be dead… we’ll die without seeing reconstruction” . 

Competing Visions and “Disaster Capitalism” 

Multiple competing plans for Gaza’s future have emerged, representing starkly different visions: 

Table: Competing Visions for Gaza’s Reconstruction 

Raja Khalidi, director general of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, warns that “these sort of almost hallucinatory plans are creating an opening for disaster capitalism that is worrying,” emphasizing that “it has to be a Palestinian vision—my concern [is that] we will be sidelined” . 

The Human Cost: Beyond Statistics 

Psychological Trauma and Social Fragmentation 

The psychological toll of continued violence and instability runs deep. Mohammed, who fled with his family from Gaza City to Rafah and was displaced again, describes their struggle in horrifying terms: “Here in Deir al-Balah, it’s like an apocalypse… You have to protect your children from insects, from the heat, and there is no clean water, no toilets, all while the bombing never stops. You feel like you are subhuman here” . 

This sentiment echoes the title of Amnesty International’s report—”You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”—highlighting how dehumanization has been both a tool and consequence of the violence . 

Intergenerational Impacts 

The destruction has particularly severe implications for future generations: 

• More than 87% of all schools and all universities damaged or destroyed  

• 10,000 students and 441 educational staff killed since October 2023  

• 50,000 pregnant women and girls deprived of adequate healthcare  

• 300% increase in miscarriages reported by UN experts 

These statistics represent not just present suffering but the foreclosure of future opportunities for Gaza’s children. 

International Response: Complicity and Failure 

Arms Transfers and Diplomatic Support 

Despite International Court of Justice rulings and widespread evidence of potential genocide, several Western countries continue supporting Israel militarily and diplomatically. Amnesty International notes that “states that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide” . 

The organization specifically calls out “key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others” for continuing weapons transfers . 

Easing Pressure and The “Normalization” of Crisis 

Recent developments suggest the international community may be easing pressure on Israel. Amnesty notes that “the newly adopted UN resolution on the future of Gaza fails to include clear commitments to uphold human rights or ensure accountability for atrocities” . 

Most concerningly, the German government cited the ceasefire when it announced the lifting of a suspension on arms exports to Israel, while a planned vote on suspending the EU-Israel trade agreement was halted . 

A Path Forward: Principles for Genuine Recovery 

Centering Palestinian Agency 

The most successful reconstruction efforts will likely be those that prioritize Palestinian ownership and agency. The Phoenix Plan, developed by 700 Palestinian reconstruction experts—without Hamas involvement—represents one such homegrown vision . As Yara Salem, a former World Bank senior manager involved in the plan, explains: “You cannot have foreign-imposed reconstruction plans while you don’t have any vision about your own country” . 

Integrated Approaches to Recovery 

RAND Corporation researchers propose a blended approach including “future-oriented camps” designed to evolve into permanent neighborhoods, “incremental urbanism” in partially destroyed areas, and entirely new neighborhoods on previous agricultural land . This approach acknowledges that different levels of destruction require different reconstruction strategies. 

Addressing Root Causes 

As UNRWA Commissioner-General Lazzarini emphasizes, “a truly peaceful future requires a genuine investment in a definitive political solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict” . Without addressing the underlying political issues, reconstruction efforts risk simply rebuilding what will be destroyed in the next cycle of violence. 

Conclusion: Beyond the Illusion 

The ceasefire has created what Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, calls a “dangerous illusion” of normalcy . Behind this illusion, Israel’s genocide continues through more subtle but equally deadly means: restricted aid access, ongoing attacks, and the deliberate imposition of conditions calculated to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza . 

The international community stands at a crossroads—it can accept the illusion of calm and risk normalizing an ongoing genocide, or it can maintain pressure for genuine change. The latter requires insisting on unfettered humanitarian access, ending arms transfers, supporting Palestinian-led reconstruction, and addressing the root causes of the conflict. 

As Callamard urgently reminds us: “The international community cannot afford to be complacent: states must keep up pressure on Israel to allow unfettered access to humanitarian aid, lift its unlawful blockade and end its ongoing genocide” . The lives of 2.3 million Palestinians depend on which path the world chooses.