Gaza by numbers

One of my readers told me recently that he’d been asked by relatives to refrain from sending them The Kibbitzer. My views cause discomfort among those for whom Zionism is a belief system that is beyond question or criticism, apparently.

Personally, it has been a long time since I last attempted to convert or even persuade anyone. I no longer have the patience or the drive for missionary work and I have understood that truth and logic simply aren’t requirements when it comes to belief and self-persuasion.

Still, it’s good to have the facts at your fingertips, if only for the unlikely scenario that you bump into an Israel supporter who is both curious and amenable to objectivity. Here, then, is a summary of the status quo in Gaza almost two years after the Hamas massacre and the start of Israel’s bloody campaign.

The sources I have used are primarily reports and updates from a variety of United Nations bodies, international NGOs, the Gaza Health Ministry and media reports from the likes of Haaretz, the Guardian, the New York Times and Al-Jazeera. I have attempted to verify every fact or figure with at least one other source. Where the numbers differ, I have gone for the more conservative.

Die-hard Israel supporters will no doubt deny everything written here or blame the outrages on Hamas. So be it. Normal people will be horrified – as we all should be.

The Gaza Strip is facing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, characterized by widespread death, destruction, displacement, starvation and a near-total collapse of essential services. Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s military actions have resulted in a staggering loss of life, with a disproportionate impact on women and children, and have inflicted the sort of physical and economic damage last seen in 1945.

As of yesterday, at least 63,459 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with an additional 160,256 injured. The majority of victims were women and children.

Yes, the figures come from the Hamas Health Ministry; if Israel released figures, I would use them. But they don’t. I would also use the accounts of foreign journalists, but Israel doesn’t let them into Gaza. The UN and all international organisations use the Health Ministry figures and, as far as I know, Israel has never disputed them.

Among the dead and injured are as many as 50,000 children, though that figure is an estimate. At least 18,430 children are confirmed killed, according to UNICEF.

At least 9,500 Palestinian bodies are believed to remain under the rubble or are unaccounted for. Research published in mid-2024 by the prestigious Lancet medical journal estimated that the total death toll was about 40% higher than the numbers recorded by the health ministry. If that is the case, we could be looking at 80,000-plus deaths.

At least 1.9 million people, or approximately 90% of the Gazan population, have been displaced, with 88% of the territory under evacuation orders or within militarized areas. Currently, over 99,000 forcibly displaced people are living in UNRWA shelters and surrounding areas. An estimated 1.1 million of those displaced will not be able to return to their homes, which have been destroyed.

Many of the displaced Gazans have been forced to move multiple times – sometimes as many as 10 times. The Israeli military has issued more than 65 evacuation orders since October 7, 2023, placing about 80% of the Gaza Strip under active evacuation orders.

Most of the people who have been displaced are living in inhumane conditions, seeking shelter in damaged buildings, overcrowded displacement sites or tents in open areas. Many of the schools have been repurposed as shelters for hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals, even though some two-thirds of the schools have sustained direct hits.

Israel’s assault on Gaza has resulted in widespread and unprecedented destruction of infrastructure, leading to a near-total collapse of the economy and essential services. This systematic destruction, “not only of housing but also of other infrastructure – government buildings, hospitals, universities, schools, mosques, cultural heritage sites, water treatment plants, agriculture areas, and parks – reflects a policy aimed at making the revival of Palestinian life in the territory highly unlikely,” according to Holocaust historian Omer Bartov.

As of July 8, 2025, the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) had identified 102,067 destroyed structures, 17,421 severely damaged structures, 41,895 moderately damaged structures, and 31,429 possibly damaged structures for a total of 192,812 structures – or around 78% of the total number of structures in Gaza.

Agriculture has been decimated. Some 68% of the available crops were destroyed at the start of the Israeli invasion and 92% of all arable land is currently unusable. Trees, agricultural holdings, greenhouses, retail establishments and irrigation infrastructure have been destroyed or put out of action.

With the collapse of the agricultural sector in Gaza, the entire population is dependent on food aid, which, since March 2025, has been provided by allies of Netanyahu. Where the previous distributors of aid – the UN and NGOs – had over 300 aid distribution points, the new bunch (known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) have four. The population’s precipitous descent into famine has happened on their watch.

Facilities providing health and educational services appear to have been specifically targeted by Israel. The World Bank estimates that 84% of all health facilities have been destroyed or damaged, leaving only 12 out of an initial 36 hospitals still functioning at limited capacity. Over 1,000 attacks on health care workers have been recorded, resulting in 458 deaths and 311 arrests.

Of those hospitals that are still functioning, bed occupancy rates are 240% at Al-Shifa, 210% at Al Rantisi, 180% at Nasser and 300% at Al-Ahli Arab. As of early August, stocks of 52% of essential drugs and 68% of essential disposables were at zero. In southern Gaza, meanwhile, six NGO-run field hospitals (out of 10 in total) face de-registration next week for not sharing personal information about their Palestinian employees with the IDF.

With 43% of the existing healthcare capacity located in Gaza City – including 33% of bed capacity and 48% of intensive care beds – the all-out Israeli attack on the city, which is now underway, could have devastating consequences.

There were an estimated 625,000 school-age children and 22,564 teachers in Gaza in September 2003. To date, 13,419 students and 651 teachers have been killed.

None of the surviving students has had any formal schooling for almost two years. The education system in the territory has effectively collapsed, with 95% of schools having sustained varying degrees of damage. Fully 88.5% of them – 156 schools – need to be completely rebuilt.

Also in a state of collapse are Gaza’s water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems, leading to severe shortages of clean water, widespread sanitation issues and a dramatic increase in related health problems.

Palestinians in Gaza are currently surviving on an average of three to seven litres of water a day – significantly less than the minimum emergency requirement of 7.5 to 15 litres per capita per day recommended by the WHO, and far less than the 50-100 litres needed to meet basic needs and minimize health concerns.

Almost 60% of Gaza’s water infrastructure and assets have been destroyed or partially damaged, including all desalination plants in the northern and central areas, 162 water wells and two of the three pipes that supply water from Mekorot, Israel's national water company.

The territory’s water reserves, scarce and barely suitably for human consumption before October 2023, are now contaminated by chemicals and munitions, posing a significant threat to food production and human health. Wastewater is also a serious threat. Three out of six wastewater treatment facilities, and five out of six solid waste management facilities have been damaged or destroyed.

The collapse of the WASH system, together with overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions in the temporary housing in which most Gazans are now living, has contributed directly to a dramatic rise in acute respiratory infections, diarrheal disease, chickenpox, acute jaundice syndrome, meningitis and other infectious diseases.

Waterborne diseases constitute the majority of infections in Gaza. During one week in August, 85 cases of Guillain Barre Syndrome – a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves – were recorded, leading to eight deaths. In the past week, there have been multiple reports of an unidentified illness, symptomized by high fever, joint pain, a runny nose, coughing, and diarrhoea.

And then there’s the famine.

Several months after Israel began its campaign – once the scope of the destruction had become apparent – the possibility of starvation in Gaza became clear to experienced observers and was brought to the attention of the Israeli government. Not only did the government not heed the warning, in March 2025 it banned the entry of all aid into the territory – an embargo that was total in March and April, partial until about mid-July (when the pictures of starving children kicked up an international storm) and remains highly inadequate until today.

The result of several months without aid has been a devastating and rapidly unfolding famine, characterized by widespread starvation, severe malnutrition and a dramatic rise in hunger-related deaths. On August 15, the IPC, a standardised system for classifying the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition, rated the northern part of the territory as Phase 5 (the highest, representing Famine) and predicted that Deir al-Balach and Khan Younis in the south would reach Phase 5 by the end of this month.

Over half a million people in the Gaza Strip, the IPC said, are facing cataclysmic conditions, characterised by starvation, destitution and death. Another 1.07 million people (54%) are in IPC Phase 4: Emergency and 396,000 people (20%) are in IPC Phase 3: Crisis.

The humanitarian crisis is exacerbated by Israel’s continuing restrictions on the entry of aid and the incompetence or deliberate malice of those responsible for its distribution. Gaza needs roughly 62,000 tons of staple food monthly to meet basic needs. It is currently receiving about a third of the requirement – and a good part of that is not reaching the starving due to the lack of distribution points and logistical problems.

The result of this deliberate withholding of essential supplies is starvation, dehydration, and disease. Between April and mid-July, over 20,000 children were admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished. The current death toll due to famine is 348, among them 127 children. Those numbers refer to deaths in hospitals only; additional people are likely to have died of starvation elsewhere.

As always, there are hidden costs to the overt death and destruction. Experts suggest that virtually every Gazan civilian suffers from PTSD and that an entire generation of children will grow up stunted and traumatised by their experiences.

"Children, including those living in shelters, are exhibiting alarming signs of emotional distress and trauma," according to the World Bank. "Trauma pervades Palestinian society in Gaza today due to the large number of people killed and injured, multiple forced displacements, a continuing lack of security and safety, limited access to basic needs and facilities."

It's difficult to imagine that any Israeli leader, whether political or military, actually believed that any good at all could emerge from the barbarism displayed in Gaza; that any sort of positive outcome would be possible. And yet, they went ahead and did it – and are continuing to do it. Go figure.