On 10 October, a new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect in Gaza, following the signing of a deal based on a 'peace plan' proposed by the United States. The agreement's first phase focuses on halting military operations, partially withdrawing Israeli troops, and allowing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. As part of this phase, on 13 October, Hamas released all 20 remaining living Israeli hostages and Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Despite these steps, violence resumed between 19 and 31 October, with Israeli strikes in Gaza killing at least 148 Palestinians. Israel stated the strikes were in response to Hamas’s delays in returning the remains of some of the hostages who died in Gaza. Although the deal also planned for roughly 600 aid trucks to be allowed to enter Gaza daily, reports stated that only about 94 trucks per day crossed between 10 and 21 October, leaving humanitarian needs critical. It remains uncertain whether the ceasefire will hold, and whether it will reduce violence and enable the delivery of aid.

Sources: WAFA News Agency, Associated Press (1), The National, Associated Press (2), Council on Foreign Relations, France 24, The Guardian

On 22 August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global standard for assessing food insecurity, announced that its Famine Review Committee (FRC) determined that the Gaza Governorate is experiencing famine. The FRC concluded that this famine, which is the highest level on the IPC’s Acute Food Insecurity scale, is man-made, resulting from the ongoing war in Gaza. The IPC also projected the famine to spread to other areas in Gaza (Deir al- Balah and Khan Younis governorates) by the end of September. An area is classified as experiencing famine when there is clear evidence that at least two of the three key thresholds (starvation, acute malnutrition, and mortality), have been met, and broader evidence strongly suggests that the third threshold has likely been reached. This marks the fifth time the IPC has made such a determination since its establishment in 2004. 

Sources: Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, Palestinian News and Information Agency, Reuters

An independent UN Commission of Inquiry concluded in a report released on 16 September that Israel has committed acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 31 July 2025. The Commission further found that senior Israeli officials, namely President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, incited these acts with impunity, noting that a lack of domestic investigation and prosecution has failed to ‘prevent and punish the commission of the crime’. Specifically, the Commission determined that Israel perpetrated four of the five genocidal acts defined in the 1948 Genocide Convention: (1) killing members of the targeted group; (2) causing serious bodily or mental harm; (3) deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s destruction in whole or in part; and (4) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

*Since the impact of these events are felt primarily in Palestine, they are coded in the entries for the latter. While they are not coded for Israel, it is Israeli action that causes the effects on democracy in Palestine.

Sources: UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, Middle East Eye, Reuters

In June, at least 600 Palestinians were killed and thousands more injured in repeated shootings near food distribution sites in Gaza operated by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The GHF, launched in late May with support from Israel and the United States, has been criticized for operating under Israeli military oversight. Throughout the month, Palestinians attempting to reach aid at GHF sites, where Israeli forces and armed U.S. contractors were present, were shot at on multiple days and in various locations. On 16 June alone, more than 34 people were killed. Human rights organizations have condemned the GHF's aid model as unsafe and dehumanizing, while United Nations officials have stated that aid distribution in Gaza has become a ‘death trap.’

*Since the impact of these events are felt primarily in Palestine, they are coded in the entries for the latter. While they are not coded for Israel, it is Israeli action that causes the effects on democracy in Palestine.

Sources: Haaretz, France24, The Guardian, Reuters, Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera