1,000 days of genocide: A tally of devastation in Gaza

More than 90pc of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed and more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 1,000 days since Israel started bombarding the besieged enclave following the retaliatory Hamas attack of Oct 7, 2023, according to the local government’s media office.

The Palestinian government’s media office released key statistics on the destruction and death toll on Thursday, marking 1,000 days since the start of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza.

As of July 2, Israel has seized control of more than 80pc of the Gaza Strip, while 2.4 million people in the territory were being subjected to genocide, starvation and ethnic cleansing, the statement said.

Of those killed by the Israeli military, more than 21,500 were children and more than 12,500 were women. More than 1,000 of the children killed were under the age of one, the statement said.

“More than 520 infants were born and subsequently killed during the genocide,” the Palestinian government said.

Over half of those killed are children, women and the elderly.

According to the statistics, 9,500 people are missing which include those that were trapped under the rubble and never found.

Israel has shelled what it called the “safe humanitarian zone” of the Al-Mawasi area a total of 241 times, the Palestinian government said.

In total, Israel has dropped over 223,000 tons of explosives on Gaza.

During the onslaught, Israel killed 1,700 medical personnel, 145 civil defence personnel, 262 journalists, more than 194 municipal employees, including four mayors, more than 928 sports professionals and more than 2,800 police officers.

Over 2,700 families have been fully annihilated and erased while only a single survivor remained in 6,020 families, the government office added.

Furthermore, 38 hospitals and 96 healthcare centres were shelled, destroyed or put out of service. Israel also targeted 197 ambulances, the statement added.

No school in the Gaza Strip has remained unscathed over the past 1,000 days, while 81pc of school buildings now require reconstruction or major rehabilitation. As a result, more than 620,000 school-age students have been deprived of education.

Additionally, 17 higher education institutions have been totally or partially destroyed, depriving more than 90,000 university-age students of education.