Published On 17 Jan 2026
Sitting in his Gaza City tent, Mahmoud Abdel Aal expresses his frustration and worries, as conditions in the Palestinian enclave remain unchanged since the implementation of a United States-brokered ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
“There is no difference between the war and the ceasefire, nor between the first and second phase of the deal: Strikes continue every day,” Abdel Aal told the AFP news agency. “Everyone is worried and frustrated because nothing’s changed.”
Israeli attacks have persisted across Gaza, with at least 463 Palestinians killed since the ceasefire began in October last year.
Following US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff’s announcement of the second phase of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan on Wednesday, more than 14 people were killed in the coastal territory, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
Amid a landscape of destroyed buildings and rain-damaged makeshift camps, Palestinians convey overwhelming bitterness. Though Israeli strikes have decreased in intensity since the ceasefire, daily bombings continue.
On Friday, an AFP photographer documented members of the Houli family walking through rubble after five relatives died in an air strike on their Deir el-Balah home in central Gaza.
Daily living conditions remain extremely precarious for most Palestinians, with more than 80 percent of infrastructure destroyed, according to the United Nations.
Water and electricity networks and waste management systems have collapsed. Hospitals operate minimally when functioning at all, and educational activities exist only as occasional initiatives. According to UNICEF, every child in Gaza requires psychological support after more than two years of genocidal war.
“We miss real life,” said Nivine Ahmad, a 47-year-old living in a displacement camp in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi area, as she hopes to return to her home in Gaza City.
“I pictured living with my family in a prefabricated unit, with electricity and water instead of our bombed home,” she said. “Only then will I feel that the war is over.”
In the meantime, she urged the world to put itself in the shoes of the Palestinians. “We only have hope and patience,” she said.