Illustration of a coastal city skyline with damaged buildings beside the sea, marking the Gaza ceasefire anniversary.

Gaza Ceasefire Anniversary: US Claims Progress, NGOs Cite Killings

by

One year after the Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit that launched the Trump administration’s Gaza plan, Washington and Palestinian authorities are describing two different wars. On the Gaza ceasefire anniversary, the U.S. State Department said an “enduring ceasefire,” the return of every hostage living and deceased, a Board of Peace, a Palestinian technocratic administration and a costed recovery plan amount to “real progress” toward a demilitarized Strip. Gaza’s Health Ministry and more than 100 humanitarian groups say thousands have been killed or wounded since the truce and that the ceasefire exists “in name only.”

Both accounts can be set out with attribution. Neither side’s framing should be treated as settled fact without the numbers and caveats that accompany it. Our earlier report on the Gaza ceasefire one year later tracked hostages home and rebuilding stalled; the anniversary statements this week sharpen the gap between diplomatic milestones and daily violence.

What Washington claims on the Gaza ceasefire anniversary

In an Oct. 13 statement marking the one-year anniversary of the Gaza Peace Summit, State Department spokesman Thomas “Tommy” Pigott said leaders had gathered in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, a year earlier to affirm President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict. Since then, the statement said, achievements include “an enduring ceasefire, the return of every hostage both living and deceased, the establishment of the Board of Peace and a Palestinian technocratic administration to run Gaza, and a fully costed recovery plan.” It also said humanitarian assistance had increased and that “Hamas theft of aid has dwindled.”

“Rebuilding Gaza will be an arduous, multi-year process, and implementation will be difficult,” the statement continued. “But we are making real progress toward a demilitarized Gaza, where Palestinians can live without Hamas rule and Israel can have genuine and lasting security.”

Times of Israel coverage of the same anniversary noted that Jared Kushner and the International Committee of the Red Cross marked one year since the return of the final 20 living hostages. Kushner wrote that witnessing their return was “one of the most special moments of my life,” and thanked Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and mediators from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey.

Death tolls, aid shortfalls and hospitals

Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, cited by Times of Israel on Oct. 13, said 1,488 people had been killed and 5,281 wounded by Israeli strikes and gunfire in the Strip since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 11, 2025. The ministry’s figures do not separate combatants from civilians. Al Jazeera’s Oct. 13 Palestine weekly, citing the Health Ministry as of Oct. 12, put the post-truce toll at 1,493 killed and 5,299 wounded, up from 1,460 a week earlier, with a cumulative war toll of 74,382 since October 2023.

More than 100 humanitarian and human-rights organisations said the ceasefire exists “in name only,” Al Jazeera reported. Islamic Relief said Israeli forces had killed or wounded a Palestinian in Gaza on average every 90 minutes since the truce began. Physicians for Human Rights Israel found that a year into the ceasefire, not one of Gaza’s 36 hospitals was operating at full capacity. Gaza’s Health Ministry said 44 percent of essential medicines were completely out of stock, and a joint NGO statement said more than 18,500 patients needed medical evacuation while more than 1,000 had died waiting.

Al Jazeera’s earlier Board of Peace assessment said about 227 aid trucks enter daily against an agreed volume near 600, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification hunger monitor. Israel has classified many tents and medical items as dual-use and restricted them. The same reporting said Israel now occupies about 60 percent of the Strip, above the roughly 50 percent envisioned before further withdrawals under the original plan, and that the “Yellow Line” has been pushed deeper into residential areas.

Board of Peace, disarmament and the Yellow Line

Trump’s 20-point plan envisioned Israeli withdrawals, prisoner exchanges, an International Stabilization Force, Hamas disarmament and eventual pathways toward Palestinian governance under a Board of Peace recognised in a November 2025 Security Council resolution. Hostages have been returned and Palestinian prisoners released under the deal, according to multiple outlets. Hamas has announced dissolution of its Gaza government; Israel has dismissed that as a stunt.

Other pillars remain incomplete. The National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, a technocratic body reporting to the Board of Peace, was founded but has not been allowed to enter the Strip and operates from Cairo, Al Jazeera reported. No stabilisation force has deployed, though Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Albania, Kosovo and Uganda have been named among countries committing personnel toward a planned force under U.S. Central Command. Hamas has said it will hand weapons to the NCAG but rejects disarmament while Israeli attacks and occupation continue; Israel says it will not advance the plan without disarmament.

The Israeli military has continued to announce strikes it says target fighters planning attacks, calling them systematic ceasefire violations. Hamas denies those characterisations. The United States has asked Israel to respond only to imminent threats while pursuing demilitarisation; Times of Israel reported that Jerusalem has largely bucked those calls. Parallel West Bank violence during the olive harvest — including deaths and dozens of settler incidents documented by Palestinian and Israeli monitors — sits outside the Strip but shapes the wider political climate around the anniversary.

What the anniversary leaves unresolved

The Gaza ceasefire anniversary therefore presents a ledger, not a verdict. Washington emphasises hostages returned, institutions stood up and a recovery plan costed. Gaza authorities and NGOs emphasise post-truce deaths in the 1,460–1,500 range, aid well below agreed truck volumes, hospitals below full capacity and no deployed stabilisation force. Readers should treat each figure as attributed: Health Ministry tolls are not independently verified in full; U.S. claims of dwindling aid theft and “enduring” calm are contested by organisations working inside Gaza.

Related regional dynamics, including stalled arrangements on Israel’s northern front covered in our report on the Lebanon–Israel pilot zone and Hezbollah disarmament conditions, show how unfinished security bargains can freeze rather than end conflicts. In Gaza, the next tests are whether aid volumes rise toward agreed levels, whether the technocratic administration can enter the Strip, and whether either side moves first on withdrawal or disarmament.

Sources