Geneva (Reuters) -Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched in response to the attack of the Palestinian militant group against the communities of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and razed large areas of the territory.
Below is a summary of the scope of deaths and damage during the Gaza War, with much of the data extracted from reports published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha).
Deaths in Gaza
Since October 7, 2023, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and almost a third of the dead were under 18, according to Gaza’s health authorities.
The Gaza Ministry of Health does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. Israel has previously said that at least 20,000 of the dead were combatants.
Israel says that his offensive is directed against Hamas and that he tries to avoid killing civilians, but that the group hides among the civilian population, a statement that Hamas denies.
A UN Research Commission evaluated last month that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, citing the scale of murders as one of the acts that support their conclusion. Israel described the finding of partial and “scandalous.”
Israeli deaths
At least 1,665 Israelis and foreigners died as a result of the war between October 7, 2023 and September 29, 2025, according to official Israeli information. Of these, 1,200 died in the attack of October 7.
The Israeli army says that 466 of its soldiers have died in combat and another 2,951 have been injured since its terrestrial operation in Gaza began on October 27, 2023.
Hamas returned 251 people to Gaza as hostages after the attack of October 7. Israel says that 48 hostages remain in Gaza, of which it is believed that 20 are alive.
According to a plan that both parties are discussing to stop the war, the remaining hostages would be delivered in an exchange for Palestinian prisoners retained in Israel, but it is unlikely that an agreement will be reached soon in the conversations, the officials say.
Damaged buildings
Around 193,000 buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, according to an analysis of the United Nations Satellites Center of the last July figures. Some 213 hospitals and 1,029 schools have been attacked, he said.
According to the World Health Organization, only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals continue to work partially, and those in southern Gaza are overwhelmed.
The UN Human Rights Office has expressed serious concern about the level of destruction in the city of Gaza, the main urban center of the enclave, and said that any deliberate effort to relocate the population would be equivalent to ethnic cleaning.
DISPLACEMENT
According to the United Nations, only around 18% of the Gaza Strip is not subject to displacement orders or is located within militarized areas. Many Palestinians have been displaced several times.
Since Israel expanded its military campaign in the city of Gaza in mid -August, promising to eradicate Hamas fighters, the UN has registered more than 417,000 displacements of people from north to the south of the enclave.
Israel has urged residents of the city of Gaza to go to the south. But the conditions in southern Gaza are terrible, with families overcrowded in improvised tents and overloaded services trying to deal with newcomers, help agencies say.
Food and hunger
A world hunger observer said in August that the famine had spread to the city of Gaza and it was likely to be extended. The Israeli prime minister, BenjamÃn Netanyahu, dismissed the report by qualifying it as a “shameless lie.”
The Integrated Food Safety Phases System said that 514,000 people – that of a quarter of the Palestinians in Gaza – were suffering famine.
At least 177 people – including 36 children – have died of hunger and malnutrition since the famine was confirmed in some parts of Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
More than 60% of pregnant women and first -time mothers suffer from malnutrition, according to the United Nations Population Fund.
AID
On May 21, Israel raised an 11 -week block over the entry of supplies to Gaza. Help agencies have said that the help that comes to Gaza is well below the needs.
Numerous help agencies say that they still face logistic restrictions and obstacles, including the closure of the Gaza-Israel Zikim crossing on September 12 and the closure of the Allenby cross between the West Bank occupied by Israel and Jordan for food aid supplies on September 24.
Israel says that there is no quantitative limit for food aid that enters Gaza and accuses Hamas of stealing help, accusations that the Palestinian militant group denies.
According to the Ocha, about 73% of the aid trucks that transported food aid to Gaza in September were intercepted by hungry civilians or by force by armed bands.
Since May 27, at least 2,340 people have died while looking for food or help in Gaza; Approximately half of them near militarized supply sites and the rest along aid convoys routes, according to och figures as of September 29.
The Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which began to deliver food at the end of May from a small number of distribution centers, has denied that incidents have occurred near its facilities. It operates outside the United Nations and has the support of Israel. He said that until September 29 he had delivered more than 175 million meals.
(Olivia Le Poidevin report in Geneva; additional report by Crispian Balmer and Nidal al-Mugchrabi, edited by Timothy Heritage)
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