Dawn (Pakistan)
1,000 days of genocide: A tally of devastation in Gaza
More than 90pc of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed and more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 1,000 days since Israel started bombarding the besieged enclave following the retaliatory Hamas attack of Oct 7, 2023, according to the local government’s media office.
The Palestinian government’s media office released key statistics on the destruction and death toll on Thursday, marking 1,000 days since the start of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.
As of July 2, Israel has seized control of more than 80pc of the Gaza Strip, while 2.4 million people in the territory were being subjected to genocide, starvation and ethnic cleansing, the statement said.
A plume of smoke rises above buildings in Gaza City on October 7, 2023 during an Israeli air strike. — AFP/File
Of those killed by the Israeli military, more than 21,500 were children and more than 12,500 were women. More than 1,000 of the children killed were under the age of one, the statement said.
“More than 520 infants were born and subsequently killed during the genocide,” the Palestinian government said.
Over half of those killed are children, women and the elderly.
Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023. —AFP/File
According to the statistics, 9,500 people are missing which include those that were trapped under the rubble and never found.
Israel has shelled what it called the “safe humanitarian zone” of the Al-Mawasi area a total of 241 times, the Palestinian government said.
In total, Israel has dropped over 223,000 tons of explosives on Gaza.
During the onslaught, Israel killed 1,700 medical personnel, 145 civil defence personnel, 262 journalists, more than 194 municipal employees, including four mayors, more than 928 sports professionals and more than 2,800 police officers.
Over 2,700 families have been fully annihilated and erased while only a single survivor remained in 6,020 families, the government office added.
A woman reacts following an Israeli airstrike on the Safadi family’s apartment in the al-Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City on June 20, 2026. —AFP/File
The statement further said that 460 people had died from hunger and malnutrition, including 164 children.
It added that 23 people were killed in ‘botched aid airdrops’, while 28 others died from the cold in displacement camps, the government media office said.
More than 12,000 miscarriages were reported during pregnancies due to a lack of food and healthcare in the Gaza Strip.
Over 5,400 people had to undergo amputations, 18pc of whom were children. Furthermore, 1,500 cases of paralysis and 1,200 cases of vision loss have been reported.
Palestinians flee their homes, amid Israeli strikes, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on October 10, 2023. —Reuters/File
The statement by the Palestinian authorities added that 26,370 women have been widowed and 58,800 children have been orphaned in the past 1,000 days. Of those orphans, 2,700 lost both parents.
The forced displacement led to 2.142 million cases of infectious diseases, including over 71,000 cases of viral hepatitis.
Palestinians carry food supplies as they walk through debris amid the destruction from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City’s al-Rimal neighbourhood on October 10, 2023. — AFP/File
Furthermore, 38 hospitals and 96 healthcare centres were shelled, destroyed or put out of service. Israel also targeted 197 ambulances, the statement added.
No school in the Gaza Strip has remained unscathed over the past 1,000 days, while 81pc of school buildings now require reconstruction or major rehabilitation. As a result, more than 620,000 school-age students have been deprived of education.
Additionally, 17 higher education institutions have been totally or partially destroyed, depriving more than 90,000 university-age students of education.
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