On October 10th, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas officially ended two years of war in the Gaza Strip. The deal, which was pushed by the Trump Administration, left Israel in control of a little more than half of Gaza, with Hamas controlling the rest. Several Israeli soldiers and some four hundred Palestinians have been killed since the agreement went into effect. (The over-all death toll since the conflict began includes approximately two thousand Israelis and seventy-one thousand Palestinians.) The availability of humanitarian aid in the territory has improved—the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which is backed by the United Nations and other non-governmental organizations, has said that Gaza is no longer experiencing famine—but access to food and medicine remains at dangerously substandard levels.

I recently spoke by phone with Ayed Abu Ramadan, the chairman of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, about the current situation on the ground. (He was in Gaza City when we spoke.) Abu Ramadan was elected to the position by other business leaders in 2023; the chamber, which represents thousands of businesses, is not part of the Hamas-led government. It has been trying to help restart Gaza’s economy, and Abu Ramadan is considered an important actor in future reconstruction efforts. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the humanitarian crisis still facing Palestinians, what has and has not changed since the ceasefire, and why he decided to stay in Gaza.

How would you describe the situation in Gaza right now?

I describe it as a humanitarian catastrophe, despite the fact that the mass killing has stopped. An inhumane situation persists in Gaza. There are roughly nine hundred thousand people living in tents and on the streets without running water—sitting, sleeping, cooking, and going to the toilet in the same place, which is usually a tent that does not protect them from rain, or from sun or heat. Kids cannot go to school. There is no proper health care, no economy, no jobs. It’s really terrible.

And what about in terms of food and medical aid being able to enter the territory? Israel cut off aid completely for a couple of months in March, April, and May of 2025. How much food has been able to get in since this ceasefire began, almost three months ago?

Israel is allowing partial aid to come into Gaza. They are allowing, for example, rice and flour—things like that. But they are heavily restricting, for example, eggs, meat, and chicken. And, in order to bring in these things, you have to pay something called “coördination commissions.” For example, if you want to bring in a truckload of frozen chicken or meat, you sometimes have to pay as much as a hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Inflation is going up in Gaza, and people have lost their purchasing power because they are not working. Around eighty per cent of people are unemployed. Around ninety per cent of families are below the poverty line.

So, again, Israel is putting restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza. They’re preventing school supplies from entering Gaza. So even the informal school programs cannot really proceed. Health care is really a problem, because there are not enough medicines. Even for chronic diseases, for people with cholesterol or heart problems, only with great difficulty can they find some quantities of their needed medications. Israel is controlling the entry points, the crossings into Gaza, and preventing essential goods from entering. Basic necessities are prevented from coming in. So it is a big problem.

Who’s interacting with the Israelis here? Who is trying to get supplies on the trucks? Is this being done through people in Gaza, like yourself, or is it being done by aid agencies?

This is mainly happening through humanitarian and U.N. agencies, such as UNICEF. They are talking to the Israelis directly. Humanitarian agencies have to apply for coördination and the applications go to the Israelis, but there is often no reply. We, as business leaders, have tried to talk to the Israelis several times throughout the past two years, but they are always ignoring our correspondence. Israelis are talking to certain Palestinian traders to tell them that they are allowed to bring in some food items, but they are not communicating with the Chamber of Commerce or the Palestinian Authority, or any official entity in Gaza. So they are talking to specific merchants, but we are not sure why. [A spokesman for COGAT, an Israeli agency responsible for facilitating the entry of aid into Gaza, told The New Yorker that it does not deal with the Chamber of Commerce in Gaza, but that “a limited number of local merchants have been approved by the defense establishment.”]

Is this about just making it difficult for Palestinians?

There is no explanation from the Israelis, and there are no comments from their side. But I think it’s economic warfare. I think it’s to allow some Israeli-favored people to profit here from this. It’s also to shock Palestinians so their health will deteriorate. It’s about deepening malnutrition, making life difficult. [More than thirty separate aid organizations, including Doctors Without Borders, had their licenses to operate in Gaza suspended on January 1st, after Israel claimed that they had not provided information about their local employees. These groups will be forced to fully stop operations by March. The COGAT spokesman told The New Yorker, “Despite attempts by several international organizations and various actors in the international arena to falsely portray the State of Israel as preventing or delaying the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, we clarify that the reality is entirely the opposite of the published claims.”]

The Gaza Strip is more or less divided between the half controlled by Hamas and the half that is controlled by the Israelis. How has this changed what life is like for Gazans?

In terms of the half of the Strip that is controlled by Israel, they’re not allowing anybody in, and anybody who comes close to what they call the yellow line may get shot or killed. So all Gazans are living inside the Hamas-controlled side, and that’s not enabling us to access our farmland, for example, or garbage-dump sites. There are also cities on the other side, even though they have been largely demolished. Factories and industrial areas are also on that side. There were several wastewater-treatment plants, too. It’s an essential part of Gaza, which is so small. It’s really causing a difficult situation.

Is one of your concerns that this is going to become a long-term border, and that the Gaza Strip and the people who live in it are going to be permanently stuck in the part of Gaza that they’re in now?

No. I think that we have a ceasefire agreement. We have a Trump plan, and we are sure, or hopeful, that the Trump plan will work and President Trump will be able to, if not convince, then force the Israelis to stick to the plan and withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

This is your hope, you’re saying?

It’s hope, and really we believe that it will most likely happen.

Is there a reason that you’re more hopeful about this than I am?

[Laughs.] Because I want to believe it. It’s our only hope. The situation cannot really continue like this.

How would you describe the attitude toward Hamas in the Gaza Strip now?

In what sense? They are controlling everything in Gaza. They are trying to help the situation in Gaza. They are providing security for us, which is most important. You cannot leave things in a vacuum. If you leave New York in a vacuum, without security, without police, what will happen? Same thing in Gaza. So we’re very comfortable with their keeping the security in Gaza. For instance, before the signing of the ceasefire agreement, there was lots of looting of humanitarian aid, and these looters were backed up. They were militias backed up by Israel and protected by Israel. The main one was the Abu Shabab group. They used to loot trucks, and then take refuge in Israeli-controlled areas. That has stopped. It stopped because the de-facto government is preventing them from doing it.

I know that a lot of prominent businesspeople, including you, decided to write a letter to Trump urging an end to the war, right before the ceasefire came into effect. Some of the people who signed that letter were very critical of Hamas in other venues. Was there a division about how much to be critical in the letter?

Anybody in Gaza can be critical of Hamas. It’s O.K. We have freedom to talk about Hamas or anybody else. [Palestinians in Gaza, including journalists, have been physically assaulted for criticizing or reporting negatively on Hamas. Since the ceasefire went into effect, Hamas has also carried out executions of people whom it claims were political rivals or collaborators with Israel.] I mean, it’s a personal opinion, so there’s no problem with that. Is that your question? Maybe I did not understand your question.

Well, I know you’ve said that you think the Palestinian Authority will be better able to bring about a long-term solution and a two-state solution, which you advocate.

Well, it’s our only hope, actually. We want to be united with the West Bank, and the Palestinian Authority is the best scenario for this. We hope we will have elections. I mean, Palestinians deserve to decide, and to have elections—they deserve to select their representatives and to have an exchange of authority.

Right, because the last elections in Gaza were a couple of decades ago, correct?

Exactly. Yes.

Can you talk a little bit about what your job is?

I’m the chairman of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture. We are trying here to help our members get their papers for reactivating bank accounts, or to start businesses both outside and within Gaza. We’re trying to help them organize local markets, and coördinate or actually do some networking for them with humanitarian actors. And we do trainings. But there isn’t much we can do, because of Israeli restrictions. They are even preventing some fuel for the private sector. They are preventing the entry of agricultural seeds like tomato, cucumber, whatever, with the intention to keep all people dependent on humanitarian aid and not to be productive. So my job is really difficult, because there isn’t much I can do, but we’re trying to promote, for example, electronic payments, because all the banknotes in Gaza, the cash, is getting worn out and Israel won’t allow us to replace these banknotes.

So we do lots of advocacy work. We collect information about local markets, about some economic indicators. We produce reports in that regard. We make the international community and humanitarian actors aware of the situation, so they can be informed when making plans. We are also doing some really small projects, trying to help people in the food-production sector start or improve their businesses, but we are making very limited interventions because of the lack of finance and production-input materials.

A lot of people in your position or somewhat similar positions managed to leave Gaza during the war. You did not. Can you talk about why you stayed?

Yes. When the war started, I was new in my position: I was elected at the beginning of 2023, and nine months later the war broke out. I felt that I was obliged to stay with the people who elected me in Gaza. I really like Gaza so much, and I don’t think I can stay out of Gaza for long. And what am I going to do outside? Being a Palestinian, it is very difficult to be somewhere outside. And I know many people are in Egypt now, but they are in difficult situations economically. I didn’t think that it would go on this long, of course. But I’m very happy that I did not leave because being outside Gaza for such a long time is not an easy thing.

I know that the humanitarian situation is still not great. I know that people are still dying. I’m just curious what it feels like in the Strip, and if people have become more hopeful or not in the last couple of months since the ceasefire.

To be honest, I cannot talk for all people in Gaza and about their experiences. I’m one of the few lucky people, in that I still have my home and I have a concrete roof. I have tents all around my house, and I see them every morning when I go to work and when I come back. When I go out, and I am properly dressed and have combed my hair, I really feel ashamed. But people can take these hardships and their life goes on, and they are very hopeful and thankful for God. And when their tent is flooded, or when their tent flies with the wind, there’s so much resilience—they keep on trying and trying to make a life. And kids are playing football in the street, and people have made stalls to sell little things, like small shops. People are really trying. They are being very resilient, which makes me feel really good and hopeful despite the inhumane situation they are living in.

Do you feel that there’s resentment toward people who’ve been more fortunate?

Not at all. Not at all. I don’t know what’s deep in their heart, but from dealing with them—I mean, there are thousands around me. I’ve never been harassed or had anyone talk that way to me.

When you talk to people or when you just think about how things are going, does this feel like just another month in the post-October 7th era for Gaza, or does it feel like something new is starting?

The ceasefire has started a new era in Gaza. You can’t imagine the amount of killing that was happening beforehand, and the amount of fear. We were almost sure that we would be kicked out of the Gaza Strip. Things were going in that direction until President Trump forced Israel to stop the war, and we are really, really grateful for this. We can take any hardship and we can manage our lives in Gaza, but we cannot do the same outside of Gaza. We recognize the amount of hardship awaiting us in order to achieve our hopes and dreams, because we have Israel here, who does not want us to be in Gaza. But we are determined, and we are insisting on staying in Gaza. We have no other place to go to, really, and we don’t want to go to any other place. We don’t want to go to Somalia, Indonesia, or even the United States. We are not really interested. We like Gaza. We want to stay in Gaza. We want to have a life in Gaza. ♦