Doha, October 07 (QNA) - The war in the Gaza Strip has entered its fourth year amid the persistent cataclysmic humanitarian and socioeconomic repercussions left by three years of war.

Despite a year having passed since the ceasefire was announced, trails of devastation, displacement, food insecurity, and deteriorating basic services remain evident across the Gaza Strip.

Data and statistics obtained exclusively by the Qatar News Agency (QNA) from officials and spokespersons for official bodies in the Gaza Strip reveal an unprecedented scale of human, social, and material losses, at a time when the fragile on-the-ground calm has failed to set in motion a genuine path toward recovery and reconstruction, amid the unabated blockade, political deadlock, and stalled implementation of arrangements related to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.

The data indicate that more than 1.2 million people in the Gaza enclave are reeling from acute levels of food insecurity, while hundreds of thousands of displaced families continue to languish in shelters and temporary housing lacking the basic necessities of life.

Meanwhile, the fallout from the war has gone far beyond human losses and direct material destruction, leaving profound and lasting scars on the social fabric of Gazans.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Social Development in Gaza, Aziza Al Kahlout, said the humanitarian catastrophe has exceeded the thresholds of human losses and material destruction, triggering structural social transformations that have inflicted severe impacts on the most vulnerable groups.

Al Kahlout told QNA that the scale of current needs requires a shift from the concept of temporary relief response to a system of comprehensive and sustainable social protection, amid the expanding range of groups that now need long-term care.

Children, widows, older people, and persons with disabilities have, after three years of war, shifted from groups benefiting from regular care programs to people grappling with daily challenges to remain alive, she regretted.

Al Kahlout noted that the number of orphaned children who have lost one or both parents has reached 71,846, stressing that the needs of this group aren't limited to food assistance but also include mental and educational protection, as well as health and social care.

She also pointed out that the Ministry's data revealed that 64,413 widows who lost their breadwinners during the war had been registered, while the number of female-headed households rose to about 86,000, equivalent to roughly one-quarter of all households in the Gaza Strip.

In the same vein, about 118,876 older people are grappling with extraordinary circumstances due to repeated displacement and the loss of access to health care and medications, alongside 16,963 persons with disabilities and patients who depend on rehabilitation programs, as well as thousands of amputations and severe injuries requiring long-term care.

Al Kahlout said almost 258,927 displaced families are spread across 2,090 shelters in various governorates of the Gaza Strip and face mounting risks as winter approaches, while food security data show that more than 1.2 million people are facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse.

The number of families registered in the national relief system has reached about 530,000, all of whom are in urgent need of assistance, the spokesperson said, recalling that the education sector hasn't been spared the consequences of the war either, suffering extensive losses that have affected students, teachers, and educational institutions and threaten the future of entire generations in the Gaza Strip.

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Ahmed Al Najjar, affirmed to QNA that the statistical and documentary report covering the period from Oct. 7, 2023, to Oct. 7, 2026, revealed unprecedented human and material losses in the education sector in the Gaza Strip.

He explained that the number of students killed in schools reached 19,189, while the number of university students killed reached 1,386.

He added that the number of injured students reached 28,586 school students and 3,082 university students, while the education sector lost 805 teachers and school staff members and 246 lecturers and academics at universities, in addition to 3,298 injured teachers and 1,493 injured academics.

Regarding material damage, Al Najjar said the occupation forces completely destroyed more than 179 public schools, while 105 schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were subjected to shelling and destruction, in addition to the complete destruction of more than 63 university buildings.

He stressed that these losses have left sheer numbers of students bereft of their basic right to education and posed enormous challenges to restarting the education system and rebuilding damaged and destroyed educational institutions. 

In another no less tragic chapter, thousands of Palestinian families continue to await the fate of missing loved ones, as recovering bodies from beneath the rubble remains excruciatingly difficult and the fate of many detainees remains unknown.

Nada Nabil, Director of the Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons, said more than 7,000 people have vanished in the Gaza Strip, including about 4,000 beneath bombed-out buildings and more than 2,500 forcibly disappeared persons held by the occupation authorities.

Nabil noted that the occupation authorities have used enforced disappearance as a tool of collective punishment and psychological pressure, with such cases continuing even after the October 2025 ceasefire.

Restrictions on heavy equipment, she added, have hampered efforts to dig out victims' bodies from beneath the rubble and give them a dignified burial. She called for an independent investigative mechanism to collect evidence and account for the whereabouts of those who have vanished and those forcibly disappeared, in conformity with the Geneva Conventions and international law.

Rami Khreis, Director of the Center for Political and Developmental Studies in Gaza, said documented indicators compiled with the Ministry of Health, the United Nations, and international organizations show that human losses have continued despite the ceasefire.

Khreis added that the war's toll as of Oct. 7, 2026, stood at about 74,250 fatalities and 175,278 injuries.

He said the daily death toll fell 25-fold during the year-long ceasefire, from an average of 99 a day to about four. Still, the year of de-escalation alone saw 1,454 fatalities and 5,090 injuries.

About 371,888 housing units were damaged or destroyed, Khreis said, while the war campaign generated an estimated 61 million tons of rubble. Only 1.5%- about 907,000 tons-has been removed.

  Recovery and reconstruction needs over 10 years are estimated at $71.4 billion, including $26.3 billion needed urgently in the first 18 months, as Gaza's economy has contracted by an estimated 84%. Khreis pointed out that nearly 65% of families still live in tents or temporary shelters, while 94% of the population needs urgent shelter assistance.

Khreis said 451 displacement areas housing about 464,000 people are exposed to winter flooding, further compounding the risks facing displaced people.

The healthcare system is suffering near-total paralysis, he said, with only 19 of 36 hospitals operating partially. More than 50,000 injured people require long-term rehabilitation services.

About 43,000 people have sustained life-altering injuries, including 10,000 children, creating mounting needs for treatment, rehabilitation, and psychosocial support.

Khreis attributed the slow transition from emergency response to recovery to political deadlock and stalled implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, alongside Israel's continued direct military control over about 53% of the Strip beyond the so-called "Yellow Line" and another 11% within the so-called "Orange Line."

He said roughly two-thirds of the Strip is now subject to movement restrictions or inaccessible, limiting residents' and humanitarian organizations' ability to reach affected areas, carry out relief operations, remove rubble, and advance reconstruction.

A genuine return to life in Gaza requires lifting the blockade, opening the crossings, allowing equipment, fuel, and medical supplies to enter, and providing the international funding needed for sustainable humanitarian and political arrangements, Khreis underlined.

Observers and experts say restoring normal life in Gaza can't be measured by emergency aid alone or by the number of buildings restored. It requires addressing the causal factors behind the humanitarian, economic, and political crisis.

  They stress that lifting the blockade, opening the crossings, bringing in reconstruction equipment and medical supplies, and providing the necessary funding are key pillars of any serious recovery effort.

They also emphasize that completing the political and security arrangements for the second phase of the ceasefire is critical to turning the on-the-ground de-escalation from a mere decline in military operations and casualties into a genuine path to recovery and reconstruction.

After three years of war, Gaza faces a challenge far beyond rebuilding what was destroyed: rebuilding a social, economic, health, and education system that has suffered extensive devastation.

With needs far exceeding current response capacity, the transition from emergency relief to sustainable recovery remains contingent on political and on-the-ground developments beyond the Strip. (QNA)