According to Palestine’s official statistics agency, the population has declined by about 160,000 people since Israel’s assault on Gaza began.
Gaza’s population has declined by 6 percent since Israel’s devastating offensive on the besieged Palestinian territory began nearly 15 months ago, according to the Palestinian Official Statistics Bureau.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said in a statement on Tuesday that around 100,000 Palestinians are estimated to have left the enclave and more than 55,000 people have lost their lives.
Some 45,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, and another 11,000 are missing, the agency said, citing figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. .
As a result, Gaza’s population decreased by about 160,000 during the war to 2.1 million, with more than 1 million people, or 47% of the remaining population, being children under the age of 18, PCBS said.
The newspaper said Israel was “carrying out brutal attacks against the Gaza Strip, targeting all types of life in the Strip.” People, buildings, critical infrastructure… Entire families were removed from the civil registry. Catastrophic human and material losses have occurred. ”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the PCBS data was “fabricated, inflated and manipulated with the aim of defaming Israel.”
Leading human rights organizations have accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza war, citing the enormous scale of death and destruction and the denial of essential services, including humanitarian aid.
The United Nations’ highest legal body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled in January last year that Israel must stop its acts of genocide against the Palestinian people, but Roman Catholic Pope Francis has declared that the international community must stop Israel from committing genocide against Palestinians. suggested that consideration should be given to whether the Gaza operation constituted genocide.
Israel has repeatedly rejected the accusations, insisting it abides by international law and has the right to defend itself against Hamas.
The Israeli military continues to block key border crossings in the Gaza Strip, preventing desperately needed aid such as food and medicine from entering the country.
The northern Strip has been under an even tighter siege since Israeli forces launched a new ground offensive in October. Residents are trapped, facing imminent starvation, and enduring relentless Israeli shelling while key medical facilities are attacked and burned.
PCBS said approximately 22 percent of Gaza’s population currently faces catastrophic levels of severe food insecurity, according to the standards of the global monitoring organization Integrated Food Security Tiering.
This 22% includes around 3,500 children who are at risk of death due to malnutrition and food insecurity, the agency said.
Around 60,000 pregnant women also face serious health risks in Gaza due to a collapsed health sector and a general lack of access to health care, the report said.
Babies are often born in harsh conditions where families are unable to provide adequate support, including basic medical care.
According to Gaza’s government media office, several young children have died in recent days due to lack of access to medical facilities and plummeting temperatures.
Israel’s war has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip, forcing tens of thousands to live in makeshift tents in outdoor camps.
