The year concludes with some somber numbers, but also much hope and the legendary sumud among ordinary Palestinians.

2025 started and finished with two declared ceasefires in Gaza, both instantly and brutally shattered by Israel, operating with absolute, unquestioned impunity.

The operational definition of a ceasefire, from an Israeli perspective, is a de facto one-sided campaign where the opposing party — be it the Palestinians or the Lebanese — is forcibly stripped of the right to fight back or defend itself.

For Israel, its relentless war machine is always framed as an act of self-defense, even as the primary victims of these campaigns, as clearly evidenced by the two-year Gaza genocide, are women and children. By the end of 2025, over 70,000 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza, more than 170,000 wounded, and thousands more remained missing beneath the rubble.

The year, however, did not begin with such a gloomy outlook. Many had desperately hoped that the January 19 ceasefire would bring the Palestinian agony to a decisive end. The agreement briefly halted the genocide to allow prisoner exchanges and limited aid entry amid a rapidly spreading famine.

The brief respite among Palestinians proved tragically temporary, as Israel began violating the ceasefire almost immediately upon its implementation. By early March, Israel had suspended humanitarian aid, triggering acute food shortages and a crippling medical crisis. Even during the purported halt, Palestinians perished in massive numbers from engineered starvation and disease.

On March 17, Israel officially re-engaged the conflict, commencing with intense military strikes and expanded ground operations. Palestinians mounted fierce resistance across the Gaza Strip, although. Hundreds of thousands who returned to northern Gaza during the ceasefire were displaced once again, and thousands were killed.

Israel’s deadly wrath did not spare the occupied West Bank in 2025, yet the region’s tragedy went largely unreported due to the catastrophic scale of killing in Gaza. The occupied region, nonetheless, endured a tremendously high casualty toll, witnessing the expulsion of entire communities in the northern West Bank and the razing of whole refugee camps.

Read More: Measuring Defiance in 2025: How Palestinian Sumud Challenged the Israeli War and the West’s Complicity