Palestinians face uncertain future as Gaza marks 1,000 days of war

It's the 1,000th day of war since a Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. Other conflicts have emerged in the region, and fragile ceasefires show scars of persistent attacks. Both Israelis and Palestinians are weary of the strain.

The fate of over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, largely displaced and living amid ruins, remains uncertain. Israeli forces controlled over half of the territory under the ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10, but Israel's government has expanded that and says it aims to hold 70%.

Few people can get in or out. Further ceasefire steps, including Hamas' disarmament and the immense task of reconstruction, have stalled.

“Much more needs to be done so that even a semblance of normality can come back, and we are far, far away from this,” the International Committee of the Red Cross regional director, Nicolas von Arx, said this week.

Here’s a look at what has happened over the 1,000 days and what may lie ahead.

Israeli strikes have lessened considerably since the ceasefire took effect, but they continue almost daily.

Gaza’s Health Ministry counted 1,053 Palestinians dead since the ceasefire as of Tuesday, including over 350 women and children. In recent days, they included a teenage girl on her way to school and a mother with her 1-year-old daughter.

“Where is this ceasefire they keep talking about?! Shame on them,” one Palestinian, Wisal Abu Khater, said this week after another deadly strike, lashing out at Arabs who she said have failed Gaza's people and are busy watching World Cup games instead.

The United Nations on Wednesday warned that the Israeli expansion in Gaza increases deadly risks for civilians in “areas lacking clear demarcation on the ground."

The Health Ministry said over 3,400 people have been wounded since the ceasefire. The ministry is part of the Hamas-led government and maintains detailed casualty records seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants but says women and children make up roughly half the dead.

Israel’s military says it targets Hamas and other militants, often asserting they were planning attacks, and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

The Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostage. All hostages or their remains have been freed or handed over, some of them recounting abuses. Israel's retaliation has killed a total of 73,066 Palestinians as of Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry says.

The top diplomat overseeing the ceasefire, Nickolay Mladenov, has made it clear: The next steps in implementing the U.S.-brokered deal are stalled over the difficult issue of Hamas disarming.

This has been a high-profile test of the Board of Peace created and led by U.S. President Donald Trump. Launched with fanfare and billions of dollars in international pledges earlier this year with the sole aim of Gaza’s recovery from war, the board now says little publicly.

Hamas' disarmament would open the way for other steps, including new administration of Gaza and the deployment of an international stabilization force to assist with security and reconstruction efforts. While Hamas hasn’t outright rejected disarming, it has indicated it wants to hold on to some weapons and demanded further concessions from Israel.

Israelis over the past 1,000 days have been traumatized by the Oct. 7 attack — the deadliest in Israel's history — and other conflicts that followed: against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran itself.

Iran’s armed proxies had attacked Israel, saying they acted in solidarity with Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed Trump to jointly attack Iran on Feb. 28. That revived the conflict in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have advanced to their deepest point in over a quarter-century

None of these fronts has completely calmed.

These conflicts and their toll — including mounting deaths for Israeli soldiers, continuing attacks along Israel's border with Lebanon and international allegations of genocide in Gaza, which Israel rejects — are weighing on Israelis and the national mood as Netanyahu seeks reelection this fall.

Netanyahu has projected confidence, but he faces a tough challenge.

Over 60% of Israelis think he shouldn't run again, according to a poll by The Israel Democracy Institute published last month. Anger has been high over the security failures before Oct. 7, the lack of a state commission of inquiry to investigate them and unpopular exemptions from military service granted to Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox governing partners.

Palestinians in Gaza say they are near their limit. Sheltering in vast tent camps with basic if any utilities, or in the skeletons of bombed-out buildings, they continue to live amid the hum of Israeli drones and the daily threat of strikes.

The ceasefire was meant to bring a surge in humanitarian aid like medicines and fuel. Aid groups and others say that has not happened. All of Gaza’s border crossings remain tightly restricted, and at times they have closed completely. The U.N. last month said 17 hospitals are still not functional.

“Cumbersome" Israeli approvals and customs procedures limit crucial supplies, U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said last month, adding that even prosthetic limbs have been affected by concerns about having a potential "dual” use as weapons.

Famine was declared in Gaza City last August, but food security experts later said there were “notable improvements” after the ceasefire. The Israeli military body responsible for coordinating civilian affairs in Gaza, COGAT, said Wednesday that “the quantities of food that are being brought in far exceed the nutritional needs of the Gazan civilian population.”

With Israeli forces expanding in Gaza, and Hamas militants accused of illegally executing Palestinians for alleged collaboration with Israel or crimes like looting, people say they are stressed and exhausted.

“We had everything before the war,” said Mahmoud Ashour, a 33-year-old shop owner in Khan Younis. ”And now we’re just craving a bite to eat."

Associated Press writers Samy Magdy and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

Palestinians walk along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed in Israeli military strikes during the Israel-Hamas war, in Gaza City, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Palestinians walk along a road surrounded by buildings destroyed in Israeli military strikes during the Israel-Hamas war, in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Police disperse demonstrators during a protest marking 1,000 days since the Oct. 7 2003 Hamas-led attack on Israel, outside of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

A demonstrator wearing a mask depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a protest marking 1,000 days since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Police disperse demonstrators during a protest marking 1,000 days since the Oct. 7 2003 Hamas-led attack on Israel, outside of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

People protest outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, marking 1,000 days since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

FILE - President Donald Trump signs the charter of his Board of Peace initiative at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

FILE - People mark Israel's annual Memorial Day at the site of the Nova music festival, where hundreds of revelers were killed and abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)

Palestinians collect food from the wreckage of their tents following an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Thaer Abu Daraz carries the body of his infant daughter, Sewar, who was killed along with her mother in an Israeli airstrike that struck a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A Palestinian child walks along a street surrounded by buildings destroyed in Israeli military strikes during the Israel-Hamas war in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine's capital overnight into Thursday that killed at least 13 people and injured scores as loud explosions shook Kyiv for hours.

The attack with ballistic and cruise missiles and drones damaged buildings and civilian infrastructure across the city. Many residents took shelter at metro stations after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other authorities issued the first warnings of the attack.

The attack killed 13 people in Kyiv and injured 86 more, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Damage was recorded in 30 locations across the city, mainly residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 20 residential buildings were damaged across the city. The Emergency Service says it deployed nearly 500 personnel and 100 units of specialized vehicles, including a helicopter, to deal with the aftermath of the attack.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on Ukraine’s allies to strengthen the country’s air defenses following what he described as a “night of horror” in Kyiv, urging partners not to delay decisions on supplying air defense systems and missiles. Writing on X, Sybiha said the death toll after the attack may rise as the rescue teams continued their work.

Russia has intensified its attacks on Kyiv in recent weeks, even as Ukraine’s own long-range drone campaign against Russian military sites and energy facilities has caused fuel shortages and disrupted supply lines inside Russia.

Sybiha rejected any attempts to justify Russian strikes as retaliation for Ukraine’s long-range attacks, saying Ukraine was exercising its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter while Russia remained the aggressor.

Klitschko urged residents of the capital to remain in shelters due to the ongoing “furious enemy attack."

He said a paramedic in extremely critical condition was among the injured in the Shevchenkivskyi district. Ukraine's Emergency Service says a hotel and two five-story residential buildings were damaged in the area.

In the Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story residential building and rescuers headed to the scene, Klitschko said.

In the Holosiivskyi district, a fire broke out on the roof of a 16-story building, according to the Emergency Service.

In the Sviatoshynskyi district, fire broke out in two private residencies, the Emergency Service said. Debris trapped people in one of them, according to the mayor. In the Darnytskyi district, six levels of a nine-story building collapsed after a Russian strike and another five-story residential building was damaged, Klitschko said. The Emergency Service said a 16-story building and private residencies were damaged in the area.

Tkachenko said the attack partially destroyed a residential building in the Desnianskyi district, sparked fires near residential buildings at two locations in the Pecherskyi district, and ignited a fire near an administrative building in the Solomianskyi district. He said authorities were also recording damage in the Obolonskyi and Podilskyi districts. The head of the Kyiv Regional Administration, Mykola Kalashnyk, said damage occurred in five regional districts. Three people sustained injuries in Bucha district, he said.

People react at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

People look at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)

A residential apartment building is seen damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Smoke rises over the city center after a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A woman walks past a burning apartment building after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)

An apartment building burns after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)

A woman looks at an apartment building burning after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)