Gaza, July 02 (QNA) - 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.
Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), 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 said, "more than 90% of Gaza had been destroyed, with over 80% of the territory's geographical area affected by military operations and displacement". He added that "more than 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. He also said the Al Mawasi area in southern Gaza had been struck 241 times.
According to Al Thawabta, a total of 73,066 people have been killed and 9,500 remain missing beneath the rubble or whose fate is unknown. He said children, women and elderly people accounted for more than 55% of the casualties, including more than 21,500 children and over 12,500 women.
He also said more than 1,022 children under the age of one had been killed, including 520 infants born during the conflict. Al Thawabta added 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.
Al Thawabta said the conflict had also claimed 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 said 460 people had died from hunger and malnutrition, including 164 children, while 23 people were killed in what he described as mistaken aid airdrops. He added that 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. He said the war had 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 said the conflict had left 26,370 women 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.
He added that Israeli strikes 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.
He also said 16 civil defense centers and 84 rescue and firefighting vehicles had been destroyed or severely damaged.
Regarding the education sector and the destruction of academic and educational institutions, the director of the Government Media Office in Gaza told QNA that 100% of the schools in the Gaza Strip suffered material damage because of direct and indirect bombing. 81 percent of school buildings require reconstruction or major rehabilitation, with 40% of them located within the so-called yellow line. 80 school buildings were directly bombed and destroyed, and 17 higher education institutions were completely or partially destroyed. The occupation forces killed more than 20,051 students, over 830 teachers and educational staff, and more than 194 scientists, academics, and researchers in cold blood. More than 19,886 students were forced to leave the Gaza Strip during the war. He emphasized that the occupation ultimately deprived more than 620,000 school-aged children and over 90,000 university-aged children of their fundamental right to education.
On the destruction of places of worship, religious institutions, and cemeteries, Al Thawabta stated that the bombing completely destroyed 1,047 mosques out of 1,275 in the Gaza Strip, in addition to partially destroying 210 mosques and targeting three historic churches repeatedly. The occupation forces killed 312 imams, preachers, religious scholars, and Quran teachers, while 37 remain missing or imprisoned. The violations were not limited to that as 40 out of 60 cemeteries in the Gaza Strip were destroyed, and more than 2,450 bodies of the deceased and martyrs were stolen. Seven mass graves were established within hospital grounds, from which medical teams later exhumed the remains of 529 martyrs.
He stated that the total number of damaged buildings reached 227,703, comprising 510,000 damaged housing units. The occupation forces completely demolished 335,000 buildings and housing units, and partially destroyed 75,000 buildings and housing units, rendering them uninhabitable. This brings the total number of completely destroyed and uninhabitable buildings and units to 410,000. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 housing units were partially destroyed but remained habitable. He added that this destruction has left more than 350,000 Palestinian families in immediate need of shelter, while more than two million people have been forcibly displaced, and the occupation forces deliberately bombed their shelters and gatherings 346 times, forcing them to live in dilapidated conditions in tents, of which more than 132,000 out of 135,000 are now uninhabitable.
He also noted that more than 650 days have passed since the complete closure of all crossings into the Gaza Strip, during which the occupation has prevented the entry of more than 390,000 trucks carrying humanitarian aid and fuel as part of a policy of starvation, adding that 48 food distribution points and 64 aid and supply centers have been targeted, 556 aid and relief workers have been killed, and aid convoys and humanitarian shipments have been targeted 128 times.
On the medical front, the director of the media office told QNA that the occupation is preventing more than 22,000 sick and wounded individuals from traveling, including more than 5,200 children in urgent need of medical evacuation to save their lives, 12,500 cancer patients facing death, and 350,000 patients with chronic illnesses whose lives are in real danger due to the prevention of medicine entry, in addition to 3,000 patients with various intractable diseases and approximately 107,000 pregnant and lactating women living without even the most basic healthcare.
Regarding the destruction of infrastructure and public facilities, Al Thawabta said that the war machine destroyed 725 central water wells, rendering them inoperable, and targeted 134 freshwater projects. Furthermore, it destroyed more than 700,000 linear meters of water networks as well as a similar amount of sewage networks, and more than 3 million linear meters of roads and streets.
Director of the Government Media Office in Gaza Ismail Al Thawabta concluded his remarks to the QNA by emphasizing that the occupation deliberately targeted livelihoods and the foundations of the agricultural, livestock, and fisheries sectors, as the bombing led to the destruction of over 87% of the agricultural land in the Gaza Strip, out of a total of 182,247 dunams. It also destroyed and rendered inoperable 8,700 agricultural wells, and targeted 7,748 farms for cattle, sheep, and poultry, destroying over 87% of greenhouses and the death of more than 69,000 head of livestock. As a result, annual vegetable and fruit production plummeted from 524,000 tons to a mere 20,000 tons. The fisheries sector suffered a 99% decline due to the prevention and targeting of fishing and its facilities, he said, adding that the direct and initial material losses incurred by 15 vital sectors are estimated at approximately $80 billion, including housing, health, municipalities and services, commerce and household goods, education, industry, agriculture, internet and communications, transportation, and other essential service sectors. (QNA)