'Every day there is killing': Gazans face Israeli strikes despite ceasefire as peace deal stalls

‘Every day there is killing’: Gazans endure Israeli strikes despite ceasefire as peace agreement remains stalled

Fida al-Toutah’s relatives say they saw her killed by Israeli gunfire inside their tent two weeks ago

One early morning last month in her tent in central Gaza, 31-year-old Fida al-Toutah, a mother of five, was brushing her daughter’s hair when gunfire suddenly broke out.

“My mother shouted at us to get down,” her son Ezz said, crying as he spoke.

He did not realise Fida had been struck until he noticed the blood-covered hands of his younger brother, who had been holding onto his mother as the bullets came in.

“Our mother was so kind and generous. What did she do wrong?” Ezz said.

Fida died on 21 September from a gunshot wound to the head.

She is among more than 1,400 people in Gaza killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began on 10 October last year, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are regarded as reliable by the UN.

Fida was one of more than 1,400 people killed since the ceasefire started, according to Gaza’s health ministry

The ceasefire led to the release of thousands of Palestinians held by Israel in exchange for all 48 remaining hostages in Gaza, along with an agreement to end the war - which was sparked by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

On the ground in Gaza, this meant Israel’s large-scale bombardment stopped, bringing major relief and a rise in humanitarian aid and medical supplies entering the territory.

But even under the ceasefire, Israel has kept carrying out strikes in Gaza almost every day. In the past week alone, more than 30 people have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas operatives and accuses Hamas of continuing to violate the ceasefire.

“It [the ceasefire] is all lies. Every day there’s a shooting. Every day there is killing and death lurking around,” said Ahed, Fida’s husband.

Asked by the BBC about Fida’s killing, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had no record of the incident.

The overall death toll from Israeli attacks since the war in Gaza began three years ago now exceeds 74,000, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Ibrahim has lost four siblings, including Fida, since the war began in 2023

Outside Fida’s tent, her brother Ibrahim pointed to holes he said were caused by a burst of bullets fired by Israeli forces.

“This tent is just a piece of cloth. Imagine that a military vehicle came down here and fired a spray of bullets,” he said. “There was also gunfire coming from the sky, from above, from quadcopters, and it was directed at unarmed civilians.”

Fida is the fourth of Ibrahim’s siblings to be killed since the war began. “We left our neighbourhood Zeitoun to survive, but death is following us,” he said.

The family has moved seven times, but safety has remained out of reach. The UN says most of Gaza’s 2.1 million people have been displaced repeatedly by the war, with many forced into tented camps and unsafe buildings.

On the same day Fida was killed, 14-year-old Ismail al-Bardawil was also shot dead. He died in the al-Mawasi area of Rafah, in southern Gaza.

His family told the BBC that he was shot by Israeli forces while he and his brothers were fishing in the Mediterranean Sea, about 20m (66ft) from the shore. He is one of more than 300 children killed since the ceasefire began, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The IDF said it also had no information about this incident.

Over the past year, the IDF has published videos of its operations in Gaza aimed at Hamas and other groups. At least seven Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire began.

Both Fida and Ismail lived near the so-called Yellow Line, which divides areas occupied by the Israeli military in Gaza from areas controlled by Hamas in the west.

The areas around the line are seen as the most dangerous because Israeli forces have often opened fire there. But there are few places to move because space is extremely limited.

The strip was already densely populated before the war started. Now its population is compressed into less than 40% of its area, which is controlled by Hamas.

In those areas, the group keeps a tight hold, cracking down on dissent and still recruiting fighters.

In May this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the IDF to expand the area of Gaza under Israeli control to 70%.

Reconstruction has still not started in Gaza a year after a ceasefire took effect

Architect Amal Alabadla, who lived in a comfortable flat before the war, now lives in a tent on the coast.

“Every time the rains come, it gets flooded. I feel very scared when the wind is strong because our tent gets destroyed or damaged,” she said.

Amal is left to raise her two boys - Mohammed and Noah - alone.

Her husband was not in Gaza when the war began, and in three years they have not been reunited. Amal’s three brothers, who helped care for the boys, were killed in separate attacks before the ceasefire began.

Amal Alabadla says she is struggling to raise her sons alone in a tent on Gaza’s coast

“During the winter, my son suffers from epilepsy seizures because of the cold. It’s very hard sometimes to keep him dry and warm,” she said.

“Before the war, I had a job, a house, an ordinary life, but then everything turned upside down. Now we have no hope, nothing. It’s only about survival day by day, to keep my kids alive, clean, healthy and fed.”

There are camps further inland in Gaza that have even been built below sea level, putting them at greater risk of flooding.

The October 2025 peace deal was meant to open the way for reconstruction in Gaza, but rebuilding has still not begun - stalled by an impasse over the deal’s second phase.

Israel tightly controls which materials and machinery are allowed into Gaza, saying it does so for its own security.

Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump proposed a plan to disarm Hamas, but in August Netanyahu rejected it, saying there would be no military withdrawal until Hamas was “genuinely” disarmed.

Hamas has said handing over its heavy weapons depends on Israel ending “all forms of aggression” and pulling its forces out of Gaza.

Far from the region, Trump’s Board of Peace has also put forward a $2.45bn (£1.85bn) recovery plan for Gaza.

But one year after the ceasefire and three years after the war began, many people like Amal remain deeply doubtful that anything will truly change on the ground.

“We are struggling and not being allowed to rebuild,” she said. “I don’t think they are telling us the truth about allowing us to rebuild a safe future for our children.”