Gaza government media office details human, material toll of Israeli aggression
GAZA, July 05 (YPA) – The Director General of the Gaza Government Media Office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, outlined the human and material impact of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.
He affirmed that the Israeli aggression has caused unprecedented destruction and losses amid continued international support for Israeli occupation and the international community’s failure to halt the conflict.
Speaking during the Pulse of Gaza program organized by the Palestine newspaper on Sunday, Al-Thawabta said the occupation forces had struck the Al-Mawasi area—previously designated by the occupation as a safe zone—241 times and dropped more than 232,000 tons of high explosives across the Gaza Strip, causing extensive damage to infrastructure and a large number of casualties.
He said more than 2,000 families had been completely wiped from the civil registry after all of their members were killed, accounting for 8,574 deaths. Another 6,020 families, he added, were left with only a single surviving member, while thousands of people remain missing beneath the rubble.
According to Al-Thawabta, children and women account for more than 55 percent of those killed, including over 21,500 children and 12,000 women.
He also said 1,022 infants under the age of one had been killed, along with 520 babies who were born during the war and later died in it.
More than 2,700 children have reportedly lost both parents, while over 22,000 fathers have been killed.
Regarding professional workers, he said 1,700 medical personnel, 145 civil defense workers, 262 journalists, 194 municipal employees, and 2,800 police and civil security personnel had been killed, describing them as civilians under international law.
Al-Thawabta said Gaza’s healthcare system has suffered severe collapse after 38 hospitals and 46 health centers were destroyed or forced out of service.
He added that direct attacks on medical facilities have significantly worsened the humanitarian situation, while almost 22,000 patients and wounded people remain unable to travel abroad for treatment, including 5,200 children in urgent need of medical evacuation.
In the education sector, he said more than 20,000 students, 830 teachers, and 194 academics and university professors had been killed due to the4 occupation’s attacks on educational institutions and their staff.
He also accused Israeli forces of violating the sanctity of cemeteries by exhuming more than 2,700 graves and burying 529 victims in mass graves inside hospitals across the Gaza Strip.
On the humanitarian situation, Al-Thawabta said 2,605 people had been killed while waiting for humanitarian aid, attributing the deaths to starvation policies and border closures.
He estimated the preliminary economic losses at around $80 billion, while losses to the media sector approached $1 billion following the destruction of more than 155 media institutions.
Al-Thawabta concluded by saying that attacks on journalists and media organizations are intended to “erase the truth.”
He said documentation of alleged violations continues despite ongoing threats, and called on the international community to assume its political, legal, and moral responsibility by pressing for an immediate end to Israeli aggression, the reopening of border crossings, and unrestricted access for humanitarian aid.