Gaza on Wednesday marks three years since Israel launched a genocidal war on the Palestinian territory, which continues to reel from unlivable conditions, daily killings by the Israeli military and being cut off from the rest of the world.
The situation there has improved little since a U.S.-backed cease-fire last October that was supposed to bring an end to the war and destruction has only been partially enacted.
The U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Tuesday that the truce has failed to provide stability or sufficient relief, urging all parties to fulfill their obligations to achieve a lasting peace.
"Last year's cease-fire brought some relief. But it has yet to deliver security, adequate humanitarian assistance or a credible path to recovery and peace," Guterres said.
The U.N. chief also called on all sides to advance to subsequent stages of the truce based on the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict.
"It is time for the cease-fire to become permanent. It is time to allow humanitarian assistance at scale. And it is time to respect international law," he said, calling for a "political path to lasting peace across the whole region."
"Let this anniversary mark not only another year of mourning, but also a renewed determination to build a different future: one in which Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace and security, with their rights, dignity, and aspirations fulfilled," Guterres said.
He added that Palestinians in Gaza have faced a "massive loss of life, displacement and destruction," without specifying their death toll.
"Their suffering, too, demands an end, now," Guterres added.
Gaza authorities and international nongovernment organizations have raised alarm that Israel has continued its atrocities in the coastal enclave, killing 1,454 Palestinians and injuring 5,090 others since the cease-fire took effect on Oct. 10, 2025.
Even Tuesday, at least three Palestinians were killed and several others injured by Israeli army fire.
The latest killings pushed the total Palestinian death toll in Israel’s genocide past 74,000, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Earlier Monday, France-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that Israel was continuing its genocide in Gaza and was "progressively asphyxiating" the region.
In a statement, MSF said the conditions for the people's survival were being "systematically destroyed" through sustained violence, "deliberate" blockade of essential supplies and the destruction of health care as well as infrastructure.
"In the past year, the physical trapping of people in Gaza has been made increasingly definitive by the establishment of Israel's Yellow Line," the French medical charity said, noting that the line has continued to move west, "squeezing people into a smaller and smaller area."
Meanwhile, global hunger watchdog IPC says more than 1.2 million people face acute hunger in Gaza despite a major scale-up of aid operations after the cease-fire.
In an August report, it cited data showing that an average of 227 trucks a day carried humanitarian and commercial supplies into Gaza from the cease-fire to the end of May – less than half the minimum 600 trucks stipulated in the Gaza plan.
Aid agencies say Israel is blocking essential items, including metal tent poles, engine oil and spare parts, from entering Gaza, claiming Hamas could use them for military purposes.
In addition, Gaza also suffers from overcrowding and limited access to clean water, sanitation, shelter and healthcare that contribute to the spread of disease, said MSF.
It also pointed to the dramatic deterioration of access to health care over the past three years as hospitals run out of basic supplies and patients are unable to access essential medicines and treatment.
"Restrictions on essential supplies, such as engine oil and spare parts, are also crippling the infrastructure needed to keep hospitals, ambulances and water systems running, with generators already breaking down and water-trucking operations reduced," the statement said.
Three years on, Palestinians are scavenging in the rubble of wrecked buildings for materials to prop up tents and other shelters after around 82% of buildings in the Gaza Strip were damaged in Israel's genocide, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Monday.
The war-displaced population now faces yet another winter with little to no shelter and dwindling aid due to Israeli stranglehold.
Over the weekend, displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip appealed for tents, blankets and basic supplies. They warned that shelter shortages and dwindling humanitarian aid could leave thousands exposed to rain, cold and strong winds.
Ahmed Hassan al-Najjar, who oversees Fash Farsh in Khan Younis, told AA that 35 displacement camps there shelter 6,000 families, or about 40,000 people.
He said residents were facing shortages of tents, tarpaulins, food parcels and medical supplies and called for urgent assistance.
"We are heading into winter and we need tarpaulins, tents, food and health supplies so we can withstand the heavy rain and winds," Iyad Zomor told Turkish Anadolu Agency (AA).
"Our tents are torn and our stomachs are empty. Do not leave us to the unknown," said one of the protesters.
