Revealed On 17 Jan 2026
Sitting in his Gaza Metropolis tent, Mahmoud Abdel Aal expresses his frustration and worries, as circumstances within the Palestinian enclave stay unchanged for the reason that implementation of a United States-brokered ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
“There isn’t any distinction between the warfare and the ceasefire, nor between the primary and second section of the deal: Strikes proceed each day,” Abdel Aal advised the AFP information company. “Everyone seems to be frightened and pissed off as a result of nothing’s modified.”
Israeli assaults have continued throughout Gaza, with at the least 463 Palestinians killed for the reason that ceasefire started in October final 12 months.
Following US Center East envoy Steve Witkoff’s announcement of the second section of President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan on Wednesday, greater than 14 folks have been killed within the coastal territory, in response to Gaza’s civil defence company.
Amid a panorama of destroyed buildings and rain-damaged makeshift camps, Palestinians convey overwhelming bitterness. Although Israeli strikes have decreased in depth for the reason that ceasefire, every day bombings proceed.
On Friday, an AFP photographer documented members of the Houli household strolling by rubble after 5 relations died in an air strike on their Deir el-Balah residence in central Gaza.
Day by day residing circumstances stay extraordinarily precarious for many Palestinians, with greater than 80 p.c of infrastructure destroyed, in response to the United Nations.
Water and electrical energy networks and waste administration techniques have collapsed. Hospitals function minimally when functioning in any respect, and academic actions exist solely as occasional initiatives. In response to UNICEF, each youngster in Gaza requires psychological help after greater than two years of genocidal warfare.
“We miss actual life,” stated Nivine Ahmad, a 47-year-old residing in a displacement camp in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi space, as she hopes to return to her residence in Gaza Metropolis.
“I pictured residing with my household in a prefabricated unit, with electrical energy and water as a substitute of our bombed residence,” she stated. “Solely then will I really feel that the warfare is over.”
Within the meantime, she urged the world to place itself within the footwear of the Palestinians. “We solely have hope and persistence,” she stated.
