Warning: This article contains images and descriptions some people may find distressing
Babies are still being buried in Gaza.
A five-month-old infant was wrapped in a small shroud of white tarp after an Israeli strike on a school shelter in the designated green zone (under Israeli military control).
A 29-day-old baby was declared dead on the cold stainless steel of a table in a morgue after suffering hypothermia in his family’s tent.
Children as young as 8 years old are called “suspects” by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and killed for venturing close to the shifting yellow line demarcating their control.
These are the scenes of devastation and despair during what is called a ceasefire in Gaza.
International journalists have been barred from independently reporting from the strip for more than two years. The drone footage of vast areas of ashen rubble is still shocking through a screen.
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“It is one of the most devastated places on earth to date,” says Alessandro Mrakic, the head of the United Nations Development Programme’s Gaza office.
“85% of the buildings have been, either partially or totally damaged, with almost 2 million people being currently displaced.”
Israel does not permit the entry of reconstruction material and heavy machinery required to rebuild homes in the current phase of the US-led peace plan.
The Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit told Sky News that “at this stage, and in line with the agreement, no reconstruction materials are being transferred into Gaza.”
For Alessandro’s team, rebuilding Gaza will be a mammoth effort even if Israel permits the entry of construction materials and equipment.
“In a best-case scenario, if we are equipped with the proper human resources, with the proper machinery; the very initial preliminary calculation, just to remove the volume around 60 million tons – it will take seven years.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon meet with US President Donald Trump in Florida to discuss the second phase of his Gaza peace plan, as well as the future of Israel’s warfronts with Iran and Lebanon.
In the lead-up to the meeting, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz made it clear that the IDF will not be leaving Gaza.
“We are deep inside Gaza and we will never leave Gaza, there will be no such thing. We’re there to defend, to prevent what happened in the past.”
He was referring to the October 7th attack in 2023, where Hamas militants bulldozed the Gaza border wall and entered Israel. More than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, and more than 250 were taken hostage by Hamas.
Health officials say over 71,200 Palestinians, including at least 20,000 children, have been killed in Israel’s ensuing military assault on Gaza.
IDF operations are ongoing during the ceasefire period, and satellite images show new military outposts to the east of the yellow line demarcating Israeli control as part of phase one of Trump’s peace plan.
The Sky News Data & Forensics team analysed satellite imagery, which shows that yellow blocks positioned by the IDF troops on the ground to mark their territory are 390 – 490 metres deeper into Gaza than mapped on official IDF channels.
“It basically swallows more than half of the area of the Gaza strip but since the ceasefire agreement, it has continuously changed.
“Every day it is changing, every day the yellow line swallows more land and we have so far documented that the yellow line has swallowed 53 – 54% of Gaza’s land,” says Maha Hussein, the Gaza-based Strategy Director of the Euro-Med human rights monitor.
“Where they have expanded the yellow line, many people are getting killed, injured and targeted by Israeli snipers, quadcopters, even artillery shelling and also airstrikes. We have documented dozens of cases of people, including children, among the victims.”
One of them is 16-year-old Zahir Nasser Shamia. A video shared by his friends shows them walking near the yellow blocks when a gunshot is fired.
Another shows them running across the rubble yelling out his name. Eyewitnesses say Zahir was shot in the head by Israeli forces and then run over by a bulldozer.
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The IDF acknowledged shooting Zahir and shared this response regarding the incident: “IDF troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip identified two terrorists who crossed the yellow line and approached the troops, posing an immediate threat to them.
“Following the identification, the troops eliminated one of the terrorists in order to remove the threat. IDF troops in the southern command remain deployed in the area in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and will continue to operate to remove any immediate threat.”
The IDF did not present evidence that Zahir was involved in terrorist activity.
The Gaza Health Ministry says that at least 406 people have been killed and 1000 injured since the start of the ceasefire on 10 October.
In another incident in an area designated as a green zone, the Gaza Martyrs School-turned-shelter was hit by Israeli shelling.
At least six people were killed, including a five-month-old baby, in an incident the IDF said involved its troops targeting suspects to the west of the yellow line, beyond their territory.
“I don’t know why they do this,” says Jamal Ahmed Mohamed, a surviving relative of the family killed in the shelter.
Why would the Israelis target a building full of displaced people – with no water, no clothes and no food?”
