1000 days of war
It has been 1,000 days since the beginning of Israel's destruction of Gaza, which experts, international organizations, and the UN commission of inquiry characterize as genocide. The government media office in Gaza has published chilling data regarding the situation in the occupied territory.
The entire territory, which has been under Israeli occupation since 1967 and under an Israeli blockade since 2007, measures 365 square kilometers. Prior to the mass killings of recent years, approximately 2.3 million Palestinians lived there, with children making up half of the population.
Through ground incursions, attacks, and forced displacement orders, Israeli forces have occupied approximately 80 percent of Gaza. On Wednesday, Israeli Minister Eli Cohen stated that Israel directly controls nearly 70 percent of Gaza, but intends to expand this to "100 percent."
According to the government media office in Gaza, more than 90 percent of this Palestinian coastal strip has been destroyed by Israeli bombardment. In the process, Israel has used approximately 223,000 tons of explosives, which is 16 times more than the atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima in 1945.
The number of people killed in the attacks since October 2023 is at least 74,066, a figure that includes 9,500 missing individuals. Many of them are buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. At least 173,514 people have been wounded.
Israeli forces have also killed more than 21,500 children, including 1,022 infants under one year of age.
At least 262 journalists, 145 civil defense personnel, and 928 athletes were also killed, according to the media office data cited by Al Jazeera.
A ceasefire was agreed upon last October, but Israel violates it almost daily. Since then, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the Israeli military has killed 1,053 Palestinians there, including more than 350 women and children. During this period, more than 3,400 people have been wounded.
Israeli forces are keeping all border crossings into and out of Gaza closed.
The United Nations warned last month that 17 hospitals in Gaza remain non-functional due to a shortage of basic necessities resulting from the blockade.
Hundreds of thousands of people are forced to live in tent camps lacking basic infrastructure or among the rubble of bombarded buildings.
Israel is on trial at the International Court of Justice in The Hague over allegations of genocide, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stand accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.