A year after a U.S.-brokered cease-fire took effect in the Gaza Strip, residents still living in displacement camps under near-daily Israeli airstrikes say the truce has not brought the promised peace.
Israel has reduced its attack intensity but continues strikes and now controls over 70% of Gaza. The cease-fire plan's promised reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory has not materialized.
"Nothing has changed for the better; everything has got worse, they lie to us, it is all lies," Fatima Awkal, a displaced woman in Gaza City, said.
"Martyrs are still falling, people are still being injured, the shelling continues and we cannot even find a moment's peace from the constant buzzing of the drones overhead."
On the streets of Gaza City, rows of white tents line passageways cleared of rubble from destroyed homes, while in the distance, blown-out windows gape from building facades still standing.
Ahmed Jonaid, another displaced Palestinian in Gaza City, said he had hoped to return home after the cease-fire.
"We thought we would experience some happiness and return to our homes. Instead, we see ourselves suffering in refugee camps, sleeping on makeshift mats," the 51-year-old said as he carried two jerrycans of water back to his tent.
Israel's genocidal war, which broke out after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion, has displaced almost all of Gaza's more than 2 million residents at least once.
With 82% of all standing structures in Gaza either damaged or destroyed as of mid-2026, according to the U.N., many residents still live in tents or makeshift shelters, where lack of hygiene has led to outbreaks of disease.
Ahmed Shawan, a doctor at a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, said he had yet to see the cease-fire take effect.
"It has been a full year since the cease-fire was declared, yet it exists only on paper," he said.
The agreement's second phase called for a political transition away from Hamas rule, with technocrat Ali Shaath appointed head of a new National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).
Five countries, including Morocco, have agreed to join the International Stabilization Force (ISF) tasked with post-war preparations, but its troops have not yet started operating in Gaza.
Israel controls all entry points into the territory and continues to allow only a limited amount of aid, keeping the price of basic goods too high for ordinary Gazans like Ismail Hamouda.
The 47-year-old father, displaced from Jabalia in the north to Gaza City, listed what residents still lack: potable water, food, financial assistance.
"Here in the displacement camps, we thought that after a year of cease-fire things would improve," he said. "Unfortunately, the situation is worsening gradually. We are still displaced."
