JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The population of the Gaza Strip has decreased by six percent since the start of the war with Israel about 15 months ago, with about 100,000 Palestinians leaving the Strip, while more than 55,000 are presumed dead, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
The office said, citing figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health, that about 45,500 Palestinians, more than half of whom are women and children, have been killed since the start of the war, but another 11,000 are missing.
As such, Gaza's population declined by about 160,000 people during the war to 2.1 million, of whom more than 1 million, or 47% of the total, were children under the age of 18, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
She added that Israel “launched a brutal aggression against Gaza, targeting all forms of life there, including people, buildings, and vital infrastructure… and entire families were removed from the civil registry. There are catastrophic human and material losses.”
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics data was “fabricated, inflated and manipulated in order to distort Israel’s reputation.”
Israel has faced accusations of genocide in Gaza due to the scale of death and destruction.
The International Court of Justice, the UN's highest legal body, ruled last January that Israel must prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians, while Pope Francis suggested that the international community should examine whether Israel's campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide. Collective.
Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of genocide, saying it adheres to international law and has the right to defend itself after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and precipitated the current war.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said that about 22% of Gaza's population currently faces catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, according to the criteria of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global monitor.
The office said that among this percentage, 22%, about 3,500 children are at risk of death due to malnutrition and lack of food.
