Illustration of a tent camp among damaged buildings in Gaza City, one year after the Gaza ceasefire.

Gaza Ceasefire One Year Later: Hostages Home, Rebuilding Stalled

by

The Gaza ceasefire reached its one-year mark on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026, with the agreement’s first-phase goals met but its larger promises still unfulfilled. The U.S.-brokered deal halted major military operations and brought home all remaining hostages, yet a new Palestinian administration, an international security force, Hamas disarmament and reconstruction have not materialized, according to the Associated Press.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,400 Palestinians since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and sporadic attacks have killed five Israeli soldiers in Gaza over the same period, the AP reported. Most of Gaza’s roughly 2 million people are living in tent camps, the rubble of former neighborhoods or damaged buildings.

What the 20-Point Gaza Ceasefire Plan Promised

The 20-point agreement, brokered by President Donald Trump with Arab partners after months of talks that began under the Biden administration, took effect on Oct. 10, 2025. It ended major combat and led to the return of the remaining hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and abducted 251.

Under the plan, Israeli forces were to pull back to about half of the Gaza Strip and stop aerial and artillery bombardment, and Israel was to release Palestinian prisoners and detainees, Al Jazeera reported. Hamas was to hand power to a committee of Palestinian administrators vetted by the Board of Peace, a new body chaired by Trump to oversee implementation. The plan also called for a U.S.-led International Stabilization Force to take over security as Israeli troops withdrew, followed by reconstruction.

“We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put the old feuds and bitter hatreds behind us,” Trump said at a summit marking the deal.

Disarmament Dispute Between Israel and Hamas

The central sticking point is sequencing. Israel has tied progress on other issues to Hamas’ complete disarmament, while Hamas and the Trump administration have said steps should happen in parallel, the AP reported.

In July, Trump announced an extension deal under which Hamas would disarm “in a gradual, sequential and time-bound manner” that is “linked to an Israeli withdrawal, in phases.” Hamas confirmed for the first time that it had agreed to disarm, linking that to an end of Israeli strikes and a withdrawal. Days later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not withdraw from any part of Gaza until Hamas was fully disarmed. Israel holds national elections on Oct. 27.

Hamas formally dissolved its government in July but left the civil service in place, and it remains the dominant force in the roughly 40% of Gaza not held by the Israeli military, according to the AP. Israel has barred the new Palestinian administration from entering Gaza through Egypt, and it has pushed the so-called yellow line of control westward rather than withdrawing.

International Stabilization Force Still Not Deployed

The stabilization force was announced in February but has not deployed. Indonesia, which pledged the largest contingent at 8,000 soldiers, put those plans on hold in the spring as attention shifted to the Iran war, the AP reported. Al Jazeera reported that six countries, Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Albania, Kosovo and Uganda, have committed personnel to a planned force of 20,000 soldiers and 12,000 police under U.S. Central Command.

At a Board of Peace briefing in New York during the U.N. General Assembly, the force’s commander, U.S. Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, said an advance contingent of about 500 troops from Morocco and Kosovo had been trained and equipped, according to Morocco’s Walaw Press. No deployment date has been announced.

Gaza Reconstruction Has Not Started

Reconstruction needs are estimated at $71.4 billion over the next decade, according to European Union and U.N. figures cited by Human Rights Watch. The Board of Peace presented a “6-Month Gaza Recovery Program” on Sept. 23 that it said could begin once funding and access allow, but Human Rights Watch said in an Oct. 10 report that no recovery work has started and that aid volumes remain far below required levels. Our earlier report on the GREAT Trust Gaza reconstruction plan covers the companies and funding proposals on the table.

Israel continues strikes on people it accuses of violating the ceasefire, approaching the line of control or taking part in the Oct. 7 attack, including operations like the IDF strike targeting a Hamas commander earlier this month. In Boston, the anniversary week also included the October 7 memorial, three years after the attack.

Sources