The United Nations estimates that a quarter of Gaza’s homes have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombing
More than 98,000 homes in Gaza, about 25% of the Gaza Strip’s total, were destroyed or damaged in the current Israeli offensive against Hamas, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported today. In its daily report on the situation in the region since the October 7 terrorist attacks, the office emphasizes that this estimate is conservative because access to areas hit hard by the bombings, particularly in the Palestinian capital Gaza City, is impossible Area. Meanwhile, Israel again bombed dozens of points in the Gaza Strip this morning. “Israeli forces are constantly attacking throughout the Gaza Strip.” reads a message from the Israel Defense Forces itself on X (formerly Twitter). in which they also claim to have destroyed “hundreds of Hamas terrorist infrastructure.”
As recently as the night of October 17-18, a residential building was destroyed in Al Bureij (central Gaza Strip), leaving 25 people dead, and several others suffered the same fate in Jabalia (north of the Gaza Strip), where 37 people were killed. according to the United Nations.
The humanitarian coordinator also counts, using World Health Organization (WHO) data, 59 attacks on health facilities, resulting in 491 deaths (including 471 in Al-Ahli Hospital, which was hit by a rocket on Tuesday). Additionally, 170 educational institutions were damaged, including 20 used by the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), as well as a university building, seven churches and 11 mosques.
Following the attack on Al-Ahli Hospital, one of the worst health facilities in the world in recent years, the United Nations raises the number of deaths in Gaza since October 7 to 3,478, of which 853 are children and 12,500 are wounded. In addition, there are around 1,300 dead and 4,562 injured in Israel (almost all in the terrorist attacks on October 7th) as well as 64 dead (including 18 children) and 1,284 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces or in clashes with colonists.
Israel’s orders for residents of the northern Gaza Strip to move to the south of the Gaza Strip have resulted in more than a million displaced people, of whom around 513,000 are housed in UNRWA facilities. Some 14 UNRWA staff have lost their lives due to hostilities since October 7, as have eight people housed in its facilities. “UNRWA shelters are overcrowded and there are limited supplies of food, clean water and hygiene products. “The extreme conditions, coupled with the trauma of war, have created tensions among the displaced,” the organization said.
Around 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid are still waiting for humanitarian organizations to enter through the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border, which remains closed, as do those connecting the strip with Israeli territory in Erez and Kerem Shalom.
The United Nations recalls that Gaza has been without electricity for eight consecutive days and that running water is only available in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip, an area where Israeli forces have ordered a concentration of evacuation. According to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), there are only two weeks’ worth of food supplies in the Gaza Strip, although much of it is stored in Gaza City, which is difficult to access due to the hostilities, while the food is stored in stores. They could still do so before the end be used up this week.
The UN report highlights that more than 4,000 Gaza workers have been detained in Israel since October 7: some of them were detained by Israeli authorities and others were taken to various shelters in the West Bank.