Israel has continued military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, causing widespread destruction and displacement despite so-called ceasefire agreements.
In Gaza, more than 100 international humanitarian, human rights and civil society organizations signed a joint statement arguing that continued military attacks, territorial restrictions and obstacles to humanitarian assistance have rendered the ceasefire largely ineffective in protecting Palestinians.
In Lebanon, a New York Times investigation documented widespread destruction after a so-called ceasefire that went into effect in April, including the demolition of predominantly Shiite Muslim villages, the burning of agricultural land and the construction of Israeli military infrastructure inside occupied Lebanese territory.
The Gaza so-called ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10, 2025, but the ceasefire did not stop Israeli forces from continuing to kill Palestinians and deprive Gaza of much-needed resources, such as aid, equipment and rebuilding materials. In the statement, the 100-plus organizations warned that the killing and deprivation in Gaza “must not be normalized under the cover of a ceasefire agreement.”
“A year on, the pattern is unmistakable. Families are still being killed. Children are still dying of preventable illness. Gaza is still littered with unexploded ordnance. Homes lie in rubble that cannot be cleared, and aid cannot reach the people who so desperately need it,” the statement says.
“This is not what a ceasefire was meant to deliver. It reflects the same conditions that twice led the UN Commission of Inquiry, in September 2025 and again in June 2026, to conclude that Israel has committed genocide. The international community’s responsibility does not end with an agreement on paper.”
The statement shared alarming figures illustrating the impact of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, including conditions during the ceasefire period:
• Over the past year, Israel has killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, including at least 327 children.
• More than 80% of structures across Gaza have been damaged, with around two-thirds of all structures completely destroyed. Neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, homes have been flattened and agricultural land has been razed.
• Hundreds of thousands of families are still living in tents, makeshift shelters or damaged homes, leaving them vulnerable for the fourth consecutive winter since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.
• None of Gaza’s hospitals are fully functioning, and medicines, equipment and fuel remain critically scarce. More than 18,500 patients, including at least 4,000 children, still need medical evacuation, and more than 1,000 people have died while waiting.
• Approximately 1.4 million people are facing crisis-level hunger or worse through the end of 2026.
Israel has also continued its destructive military operations in southern Lebanon despite an April ceasefire agreement. A New York Times investigation found that after the ceasefire, “Israeli forces deliberately demolished homes, schools, mosques and roads, predominantly in Shiite Muslim villages” in Lebanon.
The Times analyzed satellite imagery and found that 48 out of 60 villages and towns in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon were mostly destroyed. Its investigation documented additional demolitions and destruction after the April ceasefire went into effect.
It also found that roughly 270,000 Lebanese have been displaced from the occupied region, about 16,500 acres have burned since the ceasefire and more than 200 wildfires have been recorded between early April and September.
“Much of the area is now uninhabitable,” the Times reported. “At the same time, Israeli forces built new infrastructure, suggesting plans for a prolonged military presence.”
“The level of violence, the scale and tools of destruction, is unlike anything we’ve seen in the past,” Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said in the Times article. “Every bit of infrastructure is being destroyed, as if to prevent the population from returning anytime soon even if Israel withdraws.”
The Times also referenced words from Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, who “said his country’s approach to southern Lebanon is modeled on tactics used in Gaza, where the Israeli military reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble.”
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health reported that more than 4,300 people have been killed in the country since March 2, bringing the reported death toll since October 2023 to nearly 9,000. In Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has reported more than 74,000 deaths since October 2023.
Inger Ashing, chief executive officer of Save the Children, described the Gaza ceasefire as “meaningless if children are still being killed and families are still unable to rebuild their lives.”
“Since the ceasefire was announced, nearly one child has been killed every day. Families remain trapped in a devastating cycle of loss and deprivation, unable to recover,” she said in the joint statement.
“Governments that backed this agreement must use their influence to stop the killing and ensure children can access food, healthcare, shelter and education. Gaza’s children have a right to safety and a future. Governments have the power to help secure both, and they must use it.”
Jan Egeland, secretary general for the Norwegian Refugee Council, called it “utterly shameful” that little has improved for Palestinians in Gaza one full year after the ceasefire was signed.
Dr. Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International, stated: “Accountability cannot be swept under the rubble.”
“The recovery and future of Gaza cannot be separated from a framework grounded in international law, justice, and the rights of victims,” she added. “The persistent failure to hold Israel accountable and press Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s binding orders continues to fuel the atrocity crimes on a mass scale against Palestinians.”
Kenneth Roth is an American attorney, human rights activist and former executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Israel seems to have largely ignored the supposed ceasefires in Gaza and southern Lebanon by continuing offensive operations.
Netanyahu seems to calculate that so long as the level of fighting is not too intense, Trump won’t notice, so Israel won’t be any price. So far, Netanyahu has been right. That said, the gratuitous destruction of civilian property is a war crime.
As the new film NAZA demonstrates, Israel flattened much of Gaza not to attack legitimate military targets but to render large portions of the territory uninhabitable as part of its plan to force large numbers of Palestinians to flee.
That same war-crime strategy is now also being pursued in southern Lebanon,” said Mr. Roth via an email response to a series of questions from The Final Call.
The continued Israeli military operations and destruction in Gaza and Lebanon come more than two years after the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, warned of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vision of a “Greater Israel.”
In his 2024 Saviours’ Day message, “What Does Allah, The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East,” Minister Farrakhan warned that Prime Minister Netanyahu would not succeed in realizing that vision.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has a vision of ‘Greater Israel.’ Several states over there, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, they intend to annex that to what is called ‘Greater Israel,’” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said.
He warned Prime Minister Netanyahu: “You’re not going to stay in the Middle East. … Mr. Netanyahu, I warn you, in The Name of Allah. We warn you …: ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin’ (your kingdom has been weighed in the balance; it has been numbered). And it’s getting to the end of ‘Israel.’”
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan further warned: “Mr. Netanyahu: There is a revolt against him now in Israel, and he may not be elected as prime minister in the future. I am saying this to him now.
Because you are not going to live to see the vision that you have for Israel, to ‘conquer the whole Middle East,’ and you will be ‘the great [leader].’ No, no, no. You can pack that desire away, because you will never see what you envision.”
—Anisah Muhammad, Staff Writer
