Eight-year-old Muhammad al-Shakhrit had survived years of war, displaced by Israeli strikes that destroyed his family’s home in Rafah and forced them to live in a tent by the coast. But just weeks before the one-year anniversary of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that was supposed to bring an end to the bombing, he was killed by Israeli forces. He used to behave like adults, even his friends are older than him.
I used to take him fishing with my friends.” Muhammad al-Shakhrit was killed in Gaza on Sept. 26, his family says.Abdul Wahab Muhammad Jamil Al-Shakhrit Muhammad’s father is “refusing to eat or talk to anyone,” al-Shakhrit, 61, said. Over 70,000 were killed in the two years of war before it came into effect. As Israeli strikes continue to rain down on the Palestinian enclave, humanitarian and human rights groups say the ceasefire, in part brokered by President Donald Trump and signed at a summit one year ago, exists “in name only, with Israeli forces continuing to kill and injure Palestinians daily, and restrictions on aid, equipment and rebuilding materials preventing families from recovering.” A joint statement issued Friday by more than 100 aid and nonprofit organizations, including Amnesty International, Save the Children International, Medical Aid for Palestinians and dozens of others, condemned the lack of progress since the truce was agreed.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres separately warned this week that the ceasefire has “yet to deliver security, adequate humanitarian assistance or a credible path to recovery and peace,” saying that the signatories must “implement their commitments in full” and “allow humanitarian assistance at scale.” An Israeli airstrike hits a residential building on Hamid Street in Al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City on Sept. 9, sending a large plume of smoke, dust and debris above surrounding homes.Faiz Qreqa / via “The ceasefire is an illusion,” said al-Shakhrit. There are bombings happening daily.” Airstrikes are heard in Gaza “almost on a daily basis,” Aseel Baidoun, deputy director of advocacy and campaigns at Medical Aid for Palestinians, said in a phone interview Friday. Baidoun said Palestinians also continued to be displaced by Israeli strikes on the enclave, including MAP’s own staff in Gaza, “who were recently displaced again because the Israeli airplanes targeted their building or the neighborhood.” Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, which provides emergency services, told NBC News that from the moment the ceasefire was announced, “the Israeli occupation has continued its killing operations.” “All that has actually occurred is a temporary reduction in the intensity of the bombardment, while the occupation frequently reverts to targeting areas and significantly escalating hostilities,” he said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a requests for comment from NBC News on the near daily strikes reported in Gaza, and the attack that killed al-Shakhrit. It has previously said that it continues to strike Hamas and other militant targets. At least four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire began, according to .
In one post on Friday, the Israeli military said it had conducted “targeted strikes” in several areas across the enclave the day before to dismantle weapons storage facilities belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Both Israel and Hamas say they continue to be committed to the ceasefire, while accusing the other of breaching it. Mourners at Al-Shifa Hospital on Sept. 19 attend the funeral of a Palestinian man who was killed in an Israeli drone strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.Faiz Qreqa / via Announced a year ago, the ceasefire was intended to be the first stage of a broader peace and reconstruction effort in Gaza, with the deal also securing the return of all remaining Israeli hostages held there and the freeing of thousands of Palestinians being held by Israel.
The deal was signed at a summit co-chaired by Trump in Egypt, a grand spectacle attended by 20 world leaders. It also led to the establishment of the Trump-led Board of Peace, a body initially charged with overseeing the peace process and later charged with a wider global remit. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, a key envoy in the peace talks, saidin Januarythat initial work on a reconstructed “New Gaza” could be completed within two to three years.
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