GAZA: ON THE GROUND
Week of February 23, 2026
PART ONE: GAZA
The Week’s Lead
Between January 28 and February 11, 109 Palestinians were killed, 252 were injured, and 10 bodies were recovered from under the rubble, bringing the cumulative death toll since October 7, 2023 to 72,045 fatalities and 171,686 injuries, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Those numbers arrived against the backdrop of a ceasefire now in its fourth month. Since the ceasefire agreement took effect in October 2025, 591 Palestinians have been killed, 1,591 injured, and 720 bodies retrieved from under the rubble. Airstrikes, shelling, and gunfire continue across Gaza, causing casualties and exposing civilians, including aid workers and medical teams, to deadly risks.
The headline diplomatic framing this fortnight has been the formal announcement of Phase Two of the Trump-authored peace plan. Phase Two focuses on demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction. The start of the second phase was announced in January 2026, despite the failure to fully implement the first phase, and the prospects for progress on the ground are slim. The Civil-Military Coordination Center, the body tasked with monitoring the ceasefire and facilitating aid, has failed to prevent persistent Israeli violations, with European partners calling it “directionless” and “a disaster.” In late January, Reuters reported that the CMCC’s senior military and civilian leaders had stepped down and had not yet been replaced.
Daily Reality
For the third consecutive year, Gaza’s population is facing winter amid widespread displacement, substandard shelter conditions, and overcrowded displacement sites. As of February 11, at least two thirds of the population, 1.4 million people out of 2.1 million, are estimated to be living in about 1,000 displacement sites, often in overcrowded settings and in tents that offer limited privacy and protection from the elements, according to the UNRWA Situation Report #209.
Between February 5 and 11, aid workers in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis provided tents, tarpaulins, bedding, blankets, hygiene products, cereals, plastic sheeting, and clothes to 289 displaced families whose shelters and belongings were damaged by heavy rains. After cold, rain, wind, and floods, a new layer of misery has arrived for the displaced: days of sandstorms have blotted out the sky and deposited dust across tent camps. Samah, a mother of a four-year-old, described the rains to UNICEF: “When the water entered the tent, I panicked. I didn’t know what to save first: the children, the clothes, the blankets, or the food. Everything was drenched.”
Shelter materials inside Gaza, especially tents and tarpaulins, have nearly depleted. Since January 2026, partners have brought 864 durable flat-pack shelter units into Gaza, including 264 on February 10. That figure, against 1.4 million displaced people, illustrates the scale of the gap.
Since the ceasefire, nearly 827,000 population movements have been observed, including approximately 690,000 from southern to northern Gaza. The Israeli military remains deployed in over 50 percent of the Gaza Strip beyond the “Yellow Line,” where access to humanitarian facilities, public infrastructure, and agricultural land is either restricted or prohibited.
Water access remains at crisis level. Out of 14,000 cubic metres reportedly being supplied through the Gaza City Mekorot line, only 6,000 cubic metres are arriving, reflecting a significant water loss. The missing 8,000 cubic metres would be sufficient to support over 500,000 people based on the recommended minimum standard of 15 litres per person per day. Water shortages are particularly severe in high-density areas such as Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, per OCHA Situation Report No. 66.
Health System
Twelve field hospitals are operating across Gaza. Throughout January, health partners provided an average of 170,000 consultations per week. No hospital is fully functional, while 39 percent of hospitals are partially functional. Among primary healthcare centres, approximately one percent are fully functional and 35 percent are partially functional.
On February 7, UNRWA reopened the Bureij Health Centre in eastern Middle Area, which had been closed since October 7, 2023. The centre served approximately 175 patients on its first day.
The health response continues to face major constraints, with key medical items deemed dual-use, including laboratory and imaging equipment, still not cleared, and access restrictions on national and international NGOs limiting health service functionality, referral pathways, and essential services including trauma care, sexual and reproductive health, mental health and psychosocial support, and child care.
More than 18,500 people, including 4,000 children, remain in urgent need of medical evacuation. At the current pace, Save the Children estimates that evacuating those in need could take over a year. UNRWA health teams recorded a significant increase in acute respiratory infections, with 9,613 cases reported between January 26 and February 1, compared to 8,963 the previous week. UNRWA also recorded an increase in acute jaundice syndrome connected to contaminated water, with over 480 cases reported since November 1, 2025.
On February 4, an MSF health worker was struck by a stray bullet inside a healthcare facility in Al-Mawasi and is in stable condition. On the same day, a Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedic was killed while providing emergency services in Khan Younis. An UNRWA staff member was killed on February 10 while walking on Salah Ad Din Street in Deir al-Balah when Israeli forces reportedly carried out an airstrike on a nearby target. UNRWA has now recorded 391 colleagues killed in Gaza since the start of the war, as of February 18, 2026.
What Mainstream Media Is Not Covering
The systematic demolition of the Jabalia school compound. On February 5, Israeli forces demolished an UNRWA school in Jabalia in North Gaza using explosives. The building was the last remaining structure in a compound of six schools. With its demolition, the entire compound has been destroyed. Between January and February, eight UNRWA schools in the militarized zone were reportedly demolished by Israeli forces. This is documented in UNRWA Situation Report #208, published February 11, 2026. The demolitions received scattered mention in field reports but virtually no dedicated coverage in major Western newspapers or broadcast outlets. The Jabalia compound is not the site of a single strike or a military engagement. It is a sequenced, deliberate erasure of an entire educational institution across several weeks.
The documented abuse of returning Palestinians at Rafah. The partial reopening of Rafah crossing on February 2 generated coverage focused on its symbolic significance. The abuse occurring inside it received far less. For three consecutive days, Palestinians returning through the newly reopened crossing reported a consistent pattern of ill-treatment, abuse, and humiliation by Israeli military forces. Returnees described being escorted to an Israeli military checkpoint where some were handcuffed and blindfolded, searched, threatened, and had personal belongings and money stolen. Several returnees also reported being offered cash to return to Egypt permanently or to work as informants for the Israeli army. This was documented by OHCHR on February 5, 2026. It is not an allegation. It is a UN Human Rights Office finding, and it directly implicates the crossing’s operation as a mechanism of deterrence against return.
The water pipeline collapse in Gaza City. The valve on the Gaza City Mekorot supply line was reopened on February 2 following repairs. However, of the 14,000 cubic metres reportedly being supplied, only 6,000 cubic metres are arriving, with infrastructure damage leaving over 500,000 people below the minimum survival threshold for daily water access. This specific calculation, drawn from OCHA Situation Report No. 66, has not appeared in Western outlet coverage. The focus has been on aggregate aid volumes. The disaggregated reality, that Gaza City’s primary water line is functioning at 43 percent capacity, has gone unreported.
The Numbers
The cumulative death toll in Gaza since October 7, 2023 stands at 72,045 fatalities and 171,686 injuries, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. 1.4 million people, two thirds of Gaza’s population, are living across approximately 1,000 displacement sites in overcrowded tent conditions. As of February 11, donor governments had disbursed approximately $212 million of the $4 billion requested under the 2026 Flash Appeal, representing five percent of required funding. That figure is not a bureaucratic shortfall: it means 95 cents of every dollar needed to sustain a coordinated humanitarian response for 3.6 million people has not arrived. Despite improved food deliveries, more than 100,000 children and 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are projected to develop acute malnutrition through April 2026. At least 588 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023, including 391 UN staff.
PART TWO: THE WIDER PICTURE
1. Israel Approves West Bank Land Registration for the First Time Since 1967
On February 15, the Israeli cabinet authorized the opening of a land registration process in the West Bank for the first time since 1967, allocating an initial budget of $79 million for 2026 to 2030 and establishing 35 new government positions to conduct registration work in Area C, which covers approximately 60 percent of the West Bank. Peace Now described the decision as “a mega land grab of Palestinian property,” stating that it will result in the transfer of the vast majority of Area C to the state, leaving Palestinians with no practical ability to realize their ownership rights. The UN Secretary-General condemned the move. The mechanism converts military occupation into civilian legal title: once registered, land becomes a legal fact far harder to contest than a temporary military seizure. The decision affects an estimated 300,000 Palestinians living in Area C.
2. Operation Iron Wall Extended in the West Bank
On February 1, Israeli forces extended the military order linked to their ongoing operation “Iron Wall” in the northern West Bank until at least March 31, 2026. Over 32,000 people forcibly displaced from the camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams are still unable to return home, with many finding their houses destroyed by Israeli forces. The operation, now entering its thirteenth month, has been described by UNRWA as “by far the longest and most destructive operation in the occupied West Bank since the second intifada.” Israeli Defense Minister Katz has stated that the West Bank operation applies “lessons learned in Gaza,” meaning prolonged deployment and infrastructure destruction inside refugee camps.
3. The CMCC Leadership Collapse and Its Implications
The senior US military and civilian leaders of the Civil-Military Coordination Center have stepped down, with the civilian lead returning to his post as US Ambassador to Yemen and no replacement named. European partners working alongside the United States at the CMCC have reportedly reconsidered their involvement, with diplomats calling the center “directionless” and “a disaster.” The CMCC was the primary institutional mechanism for monitoring ceasefire compliance and facilitating aid. Its hollowing-out, occurring precisely as Phase Two is publicly announced, means the architecture supposedly governing Gaza’s transition to reconstruction has no functioning operational center.
4. Israel’s Security Cabinet Expands Powers into West Bank Areas A and B
On February 8, the Israeli security cabinet endorsed a series of measures expanding Israeli control into Areas A and B of the occupied West Bank, including canceling a Jordanian-era law prohibiting the sale of Palestinian land to Jews, lifting confidentiality from land records, and expanding Israeli oversight powers into zones designated under Oslo for Palestinian administrative authority. Finance Minister Smotrich stated explicitly that the goal is to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.” More than 80 countries condemned the measures as unlawful. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, and Pakistan issued a joint statement condemning the moves “in the strongest terms” and affirming that “Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territory.”
5. Israeli Budget Deadline Threatens Early Elections
If the Knesset fails to pass the 2026 state budget by March 31, the government dissolves automatically and early elections are triggered. The government submitted its budget two months late, itself a violation of Israeli law, and its prospects for passage are uncertain. Netanyahu’s coalition is functionally a minority government after the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties withdrew active participation over the failure to codify military service exemptions for Haredi men. Current polling shows Netanyahu’s Likud at 25 to 31 seats depending on the survey, with no clear path to a governing majority with existing allies. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett remains his most credible rival, polling at 18 to 23 seats.
What to Watch
The March 31 budget deadline is the most consequential near-term political variable in the region. If Netanyahu cannot pass the budget, Israel enters an election campaign during active ceasefire negotiations, a reconstruction process with no operational coordination center, and an accelerating West Bank annexation program. Early elections would not slow any of these processes: both the Netanyahu and opposition blocs broadly agree that a Palestinian state is not on the table.
Phase Two of the ceasefire plan remains unstarted. The first phase’s primary deliverable, the return of all hostages, was completed in late January with the recovery of the last hostage’s body. What follows is supposed to be a negotiation about Gaza’s permanent status, Hamas disarmament, and reconstruction governance. None of those conversations have a functioning venue, a credible mediator with operational presence on the ground, or a timeline with consequences attached.
Watch the West Bank land registration implementation closely. The cabinet approved the policy and the budget. The actual registration notices to Palestinian landowners have not yet been issued. When they are, the legal challenges, the displacement pressure, and the international response will move from the diplomatic to the operational. That transition, from announcement to implementation, is where the story becomes irreversible.
Sources: OCHA Humanitarian Situation Update #357, OCHA Situation Reports #66 and #67, UNRWA Situation Reports #208 and #209, OHCHR press release February 5, Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye, Times of Israel, Haaretz, UN Security Council Report, Arab News, UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs joint statement
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