Gaza: A senior Gaza official has described the humanitarian situation in the territory as "catastrophic" 1,000 days into what he called "genocide", citing extensive destruction, large numbers of casualties, and the collapse of essential services.
According to Qatar News Agency, Ismail Al Thawabta, director of the Government Media Office in Gaza, said official government and UN reports reflected the scale of devastation caused by Israeli occupation forces' military campaign since Oct. 7, 2023. Al Thawabta stated that more than 90% of Gaza had been destroyed, with over 80% of the territory's geographical area affected by military operations and displacement. He reported that over 223,000 tons of explosives had been dropped across the territory, including in areas previously designated by the Israeli military as humanitarian or safe zones. The Al Mawasi area in southern Gaza, he noted, had been struck 241 times.
Al Thawabta revealed that a total of 73,066 people have been killed, with 9,500 missing beneath the rubble or whose fate remains unknown. He mentioned that children, women, and elderly people accounted for more than 55% of the casualties, including over 21,500 children and over 12,500 women. Among the victims, 1,022 children under the age of one had been killed, including 520 infants born during the conflict. He noted that 39,022 families had been affected by "massacres," with more than 2,700 families wiped out entirely and another 6,020 left with only a single surviving member.
The conflict, Al Thawabta said, had also taken the lives of 1,700 medical workers, 145 civil defense personnel, 262 journalists, more than 194 municipal employees, over 2,800 police officers and aid security personnel, and more than 928 members of the sporting community. He noted that 460 people had died from hunger and malnutrition, including 164 children, while 23 people were killed in what he described as mistaken aid airdrops. Additionally, 28 people, including 25 children, had died from exposure to cold in displacement camps.
According to Al Thawabta, more than 173,500 injured people have reached hospitals, including over 19,000 requiring long-term rehabilitation. The war resulted in more than 5,400 amputations, 1,500 cases of paralysis, and 1,200 cases of blindness, while 433 journalists had been injured. He also said 362 healthcare workers had been detained by Israeli occupation, with 83 still being held.
Al Thawabta noted that 26,370 women had been widowed and 58,800 children orphaned, while overcrowded displacement conditions had contributed to more than 2.142 million recorded cases of infectious diseases, including 71,338 cases of viral hepatitis. Israeli strikes, he added, had destroyed or put out of service 38 hospitals, 96 primary healthcare centers, and 197 ambulances, with more than 788 attacks carried out against healthcare facilities, personnel, and supply chains. Furthermore, 16 civil defense centers and 84 rescue and firefighting vehicles had been destroyed or severely damaged.
Al Thawabta told QNA that 100% of the schools in the Gaza Strip suffered material damage due to direct and indirect bombing. He emphasized that the occupation deprived more than 620,000 school-aged children and over 90,000 university-aged children of their fundamental right to education. The destruction extended to religious institutions as well, with 1,047 mosques destroyed, and three historic churches repeatedly targeted. The total number of damaged buildings reached 227,703, comprising 510,000 damaged housing units, with more than 100,000 housing units partially destroyed but remaining habitable.
He also noted that more than 650 days had passed since the complete closure of all crossings into the Gaza Strip, preventing the entry of over 390,000 trucks carrying humanitarian aid and fuel. The medical front is dire, with more than 22,000 sick and wounded individuals unable to travel, including 12,500 cancer patients facing death.
Al Thawabta highlighted the destruction of infrastructure, with 725 central water wells rendered inoperable and more than 700,000 linear meters of water and sewage networks destroyed. The agricultural sector suffered significantly, with over 87% of agricultural land destroyed, and the fisheries sector faced a 99% decline.
Director of the Government Media Office in Gaza Ismail Al Thawabta concluded by stating that the direct and initial material losses incurred by 15 vital sectors are estimated at approximately $80 billion.