In Gaza, Palestinians feel forgotten as Iran war captures attention and ceasefire progress slows

Burning pieces of plastic and cardboard in a large tin can outside his family’s tent in a cemetery in southern Gaza, Raed Abu Ouda prepares a meal for his children, remembering a time when they did not have to live this way.

“Before we lived in palaces, but now we live in tombs,” said Abu Ouda, 42. who said he was injured in February when a shell hit his home despite the ongoing ceasefire, told NBC News this week. His family’s tent is one of several built in an area used as a cemetery outside the Jordanian field hospital in Khan Younis.

The cemetery, he said, was the best shelter his family could find, with thousands of Palestinians still prevented from returning to their homes, or at least what remains of them, because they are behind the “yellow line” – a border demarcating territory still occupied by Israeli forces, comprising about half of Gaza.

“We have become people living in unnatural conditions,” said Abu Ouda, who lost his job as a farmer after the start of the conflict in Gaza. Describing the daily struggle to obtain food, water and the most basic necessities to survive in the Palestinian enclave, five months into the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, he wondered how he was supposed to provide for his family of seven, including his youngest child, 1-year-old Arwa.

“I can’t even provide them with a single jerry can of water,” he said.

Hopes that the ceasefire, negotiated in part by President Donald Trump, is moving forward – and that the process of rebuilding Gaza can begin after more than two years of war – have grown after Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner unveiled his plans for the future of the enclave, marked by gleaming towers and tourist-filled beaches. Kushner had presented a reconstruction timetable over a few years despite the ongoing strikes in Gaza, but large-scale work has not yet begun.

Now, a broader war is ravaging the region after the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran last month, triggering retaliation from Tehran and its proxies. Palestinians in the battered enclave fear they have been forgotten, with progress toward the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas largely sidelined by the latest hostilities. The main obstacles include the future disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from still occupied areas.

“The war involving Iran has had a major impact on Gaza,” Doaa Basam, a 26-year-old pharmacist displaced from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, told NBC News on Wednesday in Khan Younis.

Basam noted a pursuit “shortages of many essential supplies,” including adequate food and medicine.

The Kerem Shalom crossing is currently the only functional route into and out of Gaza. Israel closed the Rafah crossing with Egypt “until further notice” as the Iranian conflict erupted, citing security fears, just weeks after it reopened under the ceasefire deal.

Meanwhile, fears have grown over future access to aid in the enclave after dozens of humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières, were barred by Israel from operating in the Palestinian territories due to their refusal to cooperate with new vetting rules that would have required them to provide lists of their staff, as well as their personal information.

The Israeli government said these rules were implemented for security reasons, to exclude any links to terrorism among aid workers.

Israel’s top court has issued a temporary injunction to allow organizations to continue most of their activities while it considers a petition from 17 humanitarian groups challenging government ban, but no decision on the matter has yet been made.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said “current restrictions on aid operations” were “aggravating an already critical humanitarian situation.”

Between February 27 and March 5, just over 3,400 pallets of aid administered by the UN and its partners were unloaded at Gaza crossings, according to an update released March 6 by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This equates to around 485 pallets per day, of which around 70% contain food, according to OCHA.

These figures represent a significant drop compared to the average recorded since the ceasefire came into force, with an average of 2,240 pallets delivered per day between October 10 and March 5. However, these figures only concern aid administered by the UN and its partners.

OCHA warned a week ago that, even before the closure of crossings and the challenges posed by the Iranian conflict, additional food supplies were “urgently needed to ensure that partners have sufficient stocks to maintain distributions”, with its partners’ operations covering “only 50 percent of the minimum caloric needs” of 1.2 million of Gaza’s 2 million residents.

OCHA also noted that medical evacuations out of Gaza were also suspended due to the war in Iran, while only “a limited number of commercial supplies were allowed in”, with delays causing fuel shortages, rising prices and increased reliance on humanitarian aid.