"This is not a ceasefire": Life in Gaza continues to be suffocated six months on

Six months since the fragile and ineffective ceasefire was implemented in Gaza on 10 October 2025, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is raising the alarm on continued violent attacks by Israeli forces and an ever-expanding military control of the Strip. At the same time, the living conditions of Palestinians remain dire, against the backdrop of a continuous and deliberate pattern of obstruction of aid by Israel, which is translating into entirely preventable deaths. MSF’s medical teams are witnessing firsthand that, while the intensity of the conflict has decreased, the reality in Gaza remains catastrophic.

As of 8 April, at least 733 people have been killed and 1,913 have been injured since the ceasefire on 10 October, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. MSF teams have responded to multiple mass casualty incidents on a monthly basis, treating at least 244 patients for injuries caused by Israeli attacks, including many children.

Since the ceasefire, MSF teams have done over 40,000 dressings for patients with wounds from violent trauma, including gunshots, blasts or other kinds of weapons. Since 10 October 2025, medical teams have treated over 15,000 trauma cases in MSF’s two field hospitals alone, both from recent injuries and wounds requiring long-term care. In MSF’s clinic in Gaza City alone, over 18,000 dressings were done, with over 60% for trauma wounds.

“Six months on, the ceasefire has failed to end the genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, with Israeli authorities continuing to impose conditions intended to destroy conditions of life.  Despite the reduction of the intensity of violence, Israeli attacks are continuous and the situation remains catastrophic. People’s needs are massive, yet the Israeli authorities have continued to systematically restrict the entry of humanitarian aid,” says Claire San Filippo, Emergency Manager for MSF.

People face shortages of clean water, food, electricity, and access to healthcare, with the decimated health system being further strangled by obstructions to aid, and by Israel’s deregistration of 37 international NGOs providing vital assistance in Gaza, including MSF. Since 1 January 2026, MSF has been blocked by Israeli authorities from bringing any medical or humanitarian supplies into Gaza. At the same time, Israel is also preventing most medical evacuations for patients needing specialised care outside of Gaza. Currently, over 18,500 people in Gaza remain on the medical evacuation list, including 4,000 children, according to the WHO.

MSF’s health facilities are facing critical shortages and ruptures of medicine and medical equipment – including gauze, compresses, and sterile medical equipment (gloves, gowns, and disinfectant for surfaces), as well as medication, including medicines for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), like insulin. These shortages are impacting critical treatments for chronic diseases, increasing suffering for people in Gaza while also stripping away their dignity.

“All the elderly people in our family have unfortunately passed away during this catastrophic war,” says Rami Abu Anza, MSF nurse in Gaza. “They all had chronic diseases, and they suffered due to the unavailability of these medications, in addition to the living conditions and the collapse of the healthcare system.”

“We suffered a lot to get treatment,” says Mohammed Abo Zaina, a 69-year-old patient in MSF’s NCD patient cohort. “We can’t find blood pressure medication, nor diabetes medication, nor heart medication. We suffered mentally and physically. And we are elderly people. We are very, very exhausted. Nothing is available. No living, no dignified life, no shelter, no livelihood.”

In Gaza, approximately 90 per cent of people have been forcibly displaced, often multiple times, and live in tents or makeshift shelters, and the situation has not significantly improved since the ceasefire. In MSF-supported primary healthcare centres in Al-Mawasi and Al-Attar, Khan Younis, between October 2025-March 2026 the most prevalent health conditions are directly linked to dire living conditions and overcrowding, including upper respiratory infections (42%), skin diseases such as scabies and lice (16,7%) and diarrhea (8,4%).

The space where people are living is continuously shrinking and framed by violence. Since the ceasefire, the Gaza Strip has been effectively divided along the “yellow line”, which marks an area under full Israeli military control (58 per cent of the territory), pushing Palestinians into only 42 per cent of largely destroyed territory. The yellow line is not clearly marked, and is continuously shifting westwards to the sea, squeezing hundreds of thousands of people into a tiny, overcrowded patch of land. The perimeter of the yellow line has become a kill zone, with gunfire, airstrikes, and shelling from Israeli forces happening daily. Israeli warships are also firing inward from the sea, trapping people with active firing on all sides.

On 6 April, at least 10 people were killed and several others wounded near Maghazi Refugee Camp in Gaza following armed clashes and an Israeli strike. MSF teams at our field hospital in Deir-El-Balah treated 16 patients, half of them with critical injuries. “Among the critical cases, there were two young girls of seven and eight years old,” says Dr Murad Saliha, MSF doctor. “Both of them had life-threatening injuries and were rushed to emergency surgery. Fortunately, despite limited resources, our medical team was able to save both their lives.”

MSF calls on world leaders and governments, including the United States and its allies including Australia and New Zealand to use all political levers to put pressure on Israeli authorities to protect civilians, restore dignified conditions of life, and urgently allow unhindered humanitarian aid into Gaza, as is Israel’s obligation as the occupying power.