“The plan was supposed to bring relief.
Instead, Palestinians in Gaza are still hungry, still cannot reach
medical care, and civilians are still being killed.”
by Brett Wilkins | May 21, 2026
Six months in, US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” has failed to deliver on its promise
of a “secure and prosperous future” for Palestinians in Gaza, who are
still being killed, maimed, and deprived of food and other crucial
supplies by Israel’s ongoing genocide.
“The humanitarian infrastructure
sustaining life in Gaza remains in peril over six months after the
ceasefire agreement in October 2025,” Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
“As the Board of Peace prepares to brief
the United Nations Security Council on May 21 on its newly-issued
six-month progress report, Israeli authorities are undermining
humanitarian lifelines,” HRW continued.
“Continuing Israeli attacks have killed at least 856 Palestinians and wounded 2,463 others, according to Gaza Health Ministry,” the group said.
“Aid volumes remain far below required
levels and critical humanitarian access routes have been repeatedly
obstructed, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),” HRW noted.
HRW continued:
In its May 15 report, the Board of Peace
said that aid distributed by UN agencies and partners increased by over
70% during the reporting period compared to pre-ceasefire levels, and
that “basic food needs have been stabilized for the first time since
2023.” The Board’s headline figures leave out that aid volumes have
fallen since early 2026, have not recovered to where they were before
the US and Israel-Iran war began in late February, and have never
reached the minimum the UN says is needed. Four UN agencies warned
in December 2025 that famine, pushed back only weeks earlier through
the ceasefire, could rapidly return without sustained access and
supplies.
“The plan was supposed to bring relief.
Instead, Palestinians in Gaza are still hungry, still cannot reach
medical care, and civilians are still being killed,” HRW Middle East
deputy director Adam Coogle said in a statement. “Whatever the Board of Peace tells the Security Council, that is what life looks like six months in.”
HRW said that while “commercial trucks
have started entering Gaza again in larger numbers,” total aid
deliveries – which were dramatically curtailed following the launch of
the illegal US-Israeli war of choice on Iran – are “far short of what
Gaza’s population needs.”
Furthermore, “none of Gaza’s 37 hospitals were fully operational, and only 19 were even partially functioning, according to OCHA.”
“Over 43,000 people have suffered life-changing injuries, 1 in 4 of them children, and more than 50,000 need long-term rehabilitation care, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates,”
HRW said. “No rehabilitation facility is fully running. Israeli delays
in approving specialized surgical equipment are limiting complex care,
and at least 46% of essential medicines are out of stock, according to WHO.”
“According to the Gaza Health Ministry,
more than 1,400 patients have died waiting for medical evacuation since
the Rafah crossing was seized in May 2024, and over 18,500 patients,
including 4,000 children, still await evacuation,“ the publication reported.
“Israeli restrictions on bringing in
generators, engine oil, and spare parts are causing breakdowns across
healthcare, sanitation, debris removal, and humanitarian work,” HRW
said.
“Rodents and insects are spreading across displacement camps, and skin infections and other diseases are on the rise, OCHA reported,” the publication noted. “UN agencies and aid groups working on water and sanitation warn that severe shortages of lubricant oil and spare parts are causing generators to fail.”
Israeli forces are still killing and wounding humanitarian workers in Gaza.
“As of late April, OCHA had recorded the killing of at least 593 aid workers in Gaza since October 2023, including 8 since the ceasefire,” HRW said.
Funding pledges have also fallen far short of what’s needed.
“At the Board of Peace’s inaugural meeting in February, 10 Board member states and observers pledged
a total of $17 billion for reconstruction against UN estimates of $70
billion needed,” HRW said. “As of April, the Board had received less
than $1 billion of the pledged amount, with only three contributors
having delivered funds, according to Reuters.”
“When the Board of Peace briefs the
Security Council, members should weigh what they hear against what UN
agencies are reporting from the ground,” Coogle said. “No spin can hide
the fact that aid is not entering at the needed scale, patients do not
have access to adequate medical care, and crossings to Gaza remain
limited.”
The HRW report came a day after the UN Human Rights Office urged
Israel to prevent further “acts of genocide” in Gaza, while raising
concerns about escalating “ethnic cleansing” in the illegally occupied
West Bank of Palestine.
A panel of UN human rights experts found last year that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. South Africa filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice that’s now backed by nearly 20 nations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are wanted
by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against
humanity, including murder and forced starvation. The ICC is also reportedly
seeking to arrest Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir
and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich over the illegal settler
colonization and ethnic cleansing of the West Bank.
More than 250,000 Palestinians have been
killed or wounded in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack of October 2023.
Nearly all of the coastal strip’s approximately 2.1 million people have
also been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened during that period.
Through it all, the Biden and Trump administrations have provided Israel
with more than $20 billion in armed aid and diplomatic cover, including vetoes of several UN Security Council ceasefire resolutions.
(Photo credit: Mohsin Raza/Reuters)
