Gaza population has declined by 6 percent since war began, statistics agency says Gaza News

The official Palestinian statistics agency says the population has fallen by about 160,000 since the Israeli offensive on Gaza began.

Gaza’s population has declined by 6 percent since Israel’s devastating attack on the besieged Palestinian territory nearly 15 months ago, according to the official Palestinian statistics agency.

Nearly 100,000 Palestinians have left the enclave, while more than 55,000 have lost their lives, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said in a release on Tuesday.

The bureau, citing Palestinian Health Ministry figures, said some 45,500 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, more than half of them women and children and another 11,000 are missing.

Thus, Gaza’s population has declined by approximately 160,000 during the war to 2.1 million, the PCBS said, including more than 1 million or 47 percent of the total remaining population who are children under 18 years of age.

It said Israel “has carried out brutal aggression against Gaza and targeted all forms of life there; Human beings, buildings and critical infrastructure… entire families were erased from the civil register. “There has been catastrophic human and material loss.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the PCBS data was “fabricated, exaggerated and manipulated to defame Israel”.

Major rights groups have accused Israel of committing acts of genocide in its war on Gaza, causing mass death and destruction and denying the delivery of essential services, including humanitarian aid.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest legal body, ruled last January that Israel must stop committing acts of genocide against Palestinians, while Roman Catholic Pope Francis has suggested the global community should study whether Israel’s Gaza campaign is genocide.

Israel has repeatedly rejected the accusations and claims it abides by international law and has the right to defend itself against Hamas.

Israeli forces continue to seal off key border crossings into Gaza, preventing the entry of desperately needed aid, including food and medicine.

In the north of the Strip, there has been an even tighter siege since Israeli forces launched a renewed ground offensive in October. Residents there are stranded, facing imminent famine, and enduring constant Israeli bombardment, while major medical facilities have been raided and burned.

PCBS said that according to the criteria of the global monitor, Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, approximately 22 percent of Gaza’s population is currently facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity.

That 22 percent includes about 3,500 children who are at risk of death due to malnutrition and lack of food, the bureau said.

Nearly 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza also face serious health risks due to a deteriorating health care sector and a general lack of access to health care, the report said.

Infants are often born into difficult circumstances, where families are unable to provide adequate support such as basic health care.

Gaza’s government media office said many infants had died in recent days due to lack of access to health facilities and freezing temperatures.

Israel’s war has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza, forcing thousands to live in makeshift tents in open-air camps.