The Sharm el-Sheikh agreement declares the end of the Gaza war and a ceasefire in October 2025, which included the exchange of prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, and a long stage of reconstruction of Gaza. Despite the agreement, significant challenges remain in fully implementing its provisions, ensuring lasting stability, and addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
The Path of the Ceasefire Agreement and the End of the Gaza War
Reaching a ceasefire and ending the Gaza war two years after the genocide was not easy or straightforward, but it went through multiple stages with some setbacks. The most important stages of the Sharm el-Sheikh agreement:
Truce and prisoner exchange
This phase began with an immediate truce for six weeks, which included a comprehensive halt to the Israeli aggression on Gaza, and one of the most prominent items of this phase was the exchange of prisoners, where Israeli prisoners were released in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners. This phase also included the opening of crossings to bring urgent humanitarian aid into the Strip, which is suffering from a severe humanitarian crisis.
A Permanent Ceasefire and the End of the Gaza War
After the initial truce ended, negotiations began on a permanent ceasefire and a gradual and complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The biggest challenge here is to ensure that escalation and aggression do not return as they did when the war resumed. by: 54 54 54 54 54 54 54 54 54 54 54 54 54 54 54- Al Imran.
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Reconstruction of what the Israeli occupation destroyed
This is the longest and most complex phase, involving a comprehensive reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, whose infrastructure was largely destroyed during the war. This phase is expected to take three to five years and requires extensive international support and coordinated efforts to rebuild homes, hospitals and schools, and provide basic services to the population. This phase also focuses on improving the humanitarian and economic situation in the Strip, and lifting restrictions on movement and trade.
What are the challenges of ending the Gaza war?
Despite the agreement, the early days witnessed Israeli violations, such as the refusal to open the Rafah crossing completely, which led to a reduction in the volume of humanitarian aid and threats to resume the war, as happened on March 18, 2025, where Israeli forces violated the truce agreement and resumed the war, triggering airstrikes that resulted in thousands of deaths. But the current agreement aims to avoid that.
Read more about Gaza Support Now Urgent
1. Concerns about the fragility of the agreement
The early days after the agreement saw some breaches and tensions. For example, there have been reports of Israel’s refusal to fully open the Rafah crossing, affecting the flow of humanitarian aid. In March 2025, the Strip witnessed an escalation after a rocket attack and infiltrations, which led to the resumption of fighting for a period. These events raise concerns about the long-term commitment of the parties to the agreement.
2. The catastrophic humanitarian situation
More than 80 percent of buildings, including thousands of homes, hospitals and schools, have been destroyed, and entire neighborhoods have become rubble. In addition to the lack of water and food, most residents have only sporadic access to safe drinking water. Food is scarce and very expensive, prices have risen exponentially, and people depend on hard-to-reach international aid. As for the collapse of the health system, hospitals that barely run without enough electricity, without surgical instruments, sometimes have to perform operations without adequate anesthesia.
3. Challenges relating to displaced persons
More than 1.5 million people are displaced within the Strip, about 3 out of 4 people have lost their homes. Children are most affected, as many have lost their parents or homes. They suffer from severe psychological trauma, such as insomnia and constant fear of loud sounds. Education also remains almost suspended, as most schools have become shelters or destroyed.
As a result of the extensive destruction caused by the war, many families in Gaza have lost their homes after their neighborhoods were completely destroyed, leaving them homeless. With the costs of renting land and buying tents soaring, these families are forced to constantly move in search of a place to shelter, amid extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.
4. Electricity and communications
Despite the end of the Gaza war, the struggle to provide electricity continues, as Gaza’s only power plant has been severely damaged, sometimes completely interrupted by fuel shortages or direct bombing. As a result, electricity arrives for very limited hours, sometimes just an hour or two a day, sometimes not at all. This constant outage makes running hospitals very difficult (breathers, incubators, surgeries), and keeping food difficult, because refrigerators do not work, in addition to pumping water or operating desalination plants is very limited, and even the simple charging of phones has become a big challenge.
