What is happening in Palestine
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Executive summary
Fighting in and around Gaza remains deadly even after an October ceasefire: UN agencies report the enclave “in the grip of a catastrophic humanitarian emergency,” with UNRWA/OCHA counting about 70,117 Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October 2023 and 360–379 fatalities reported since the ceasefire’s start, alongside mass displacement and infrastructure collapse [1] [2] [3]. Parallel violence and settler expansions are documented in the West Bank, where NGOs and UN reporting cite widespread settler attacks and more than 1,000 Palestinian deaths since October 2023 in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem [4] [1].
1. Front lines and the ceasefire that is not peace
A U.S.-backed, phased plan governs the current pause in large-scale ground operations, but the pause is fragile: UN reporting describes continued airstrikes, shelling and clashes near a so‑called “Yellow Line” inside Gaza that keep causing casualties and new displacement, and observers warn the halt in major operations has not ended the enclave’s catastrophic humanitarian crisis [2] [5]. Media live coverage and humanitarian sources report dozens of deaths in recent days despite the ceasefire framework, underlining that “phase one” has reduced but not ended lethal violence [3] [6].
2. The human toll and collapsing services
UNRWA and OCHA figures document catastrophic losses and deprivation: since 7 October 2023, the Gaza Ministry of Health as cited by UNRWA/OCHA records about 70,117 deaths and roughly 171,000 injured in Gaza, while the occupied West Bank has seen 1,034 Palestinian deaths (including at least 224 children) up to early December 2025; UNRWA also reports tens of thousands of displaced families, acute shortages of water and waste services, and mass infrastructure damage [1] [7]. These are the primary, repeatedly cited casualty and humanitarian numbers in current international reporting [1].
3. Politics of “phase two”: disarmament, demilitarisation, and dispute
Phase two of the US-led plan is billed by Israeli officials as disarmament and demilitarisation of Gaza, but the details and guarantors remain disputed. Israeli leaders demand disarmament; Hamas officials indicate they might “freeze or store arms” as part of a longer process tied to a Palestinian state and a long-term truce, while the role and mandate of any international stabilisation force are contested [5]. International actors — including the UN and regional states — publicly press for humanitarian stability, but sources show deep disagreement about what security arrangements would look like [2] [5].
4. West Bank dynamics: settler violence and governance vacuum
Civil society reporting compiled by the UN highlights intensified settler attacks and new outposts in the West Bank, and NGOs warn of widespread human-rights violations there; simultaneously, political tensions persist over Palestinian governance options after the war, with survey data showing shifting Palestinian attitudes toward alternatives to Hamas and the PA in Gaza [4] [8]. The NGO and UN newsletters frame the West Bank violence as a parallel crisis that feeds displacement and hardens political fragmentation [4] [1].
5. International law, UN operations and crackdowns
UN agencies note friction with Israeli authorities: UNRWA described seizure of assets at its East Jerusalem compound and reported impacts to its premises and staff, while legal and diplomatic disputes have continued in international fora; the International Court of Justice and UN oversight feature in reporting about obligations and the legal context of operations, according to international media and UN dispatches [9] [3] [1]. Coverage shows both operational hindrances for relief agencies and political pressure on UN mandates.
6. Wider regional risks and military posturing
Analysts and military reporting point to broader regional tensions: Israeli officials have pressed Lebanon and Lebanese security forces about Hezbollah’s armament, and Israel continues to prepare for potential operations in Lebanon, signaling the risk of lateral escalation beyond Gaza and the West Bank [10]. Multiple sources link the Gaza crisis and West Bank unrest to a larger pattern of regional alignment and contingency planning.
7. What the sources don’t say and the limits of current reporting
Available sources do not mention a negotiated, durable political settlement or a consensus on who will administer Gaza long term; they also do not provide independent, universally accepted casualty counts beyond the UN and local ministries’ figures, and they note disagreements about the role of international stabilisation forces and the exact meaning of “disarmament” [5] [1]. Readers should treat phase descriptions, national statements and local casualty tallies as politically contested and evolving [2] [5].
Context matters: the reporting assembled here — UN agencies, NGOs, regional media and Western outlets — converges on a humanitarian catastrophe, ongoing local violence, and unresolved political disputes that make any durable peace fragile in the near term [1] [2] [5].