JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel invaded the Gaza Strip in October 2023 in response to a cross-border attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Israel’s military campaign over the past 21 months has laid waste to vast swathes of the Palestinian enclave. Below is a summary of the death and destruction, with much of the data drawn from reports released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
DEATHS IN GAZA
Between October 7 2023 and July 13 2025, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that at least 58,026 Palestinians were killed, and 138,520 injured. This includes more than 7,200 killed since a ceasefire broke down on March 18. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally, but says over half of those dead are women and children. Israel says at least 20,000 are fighters.
The United Nations said on July 11 that 798 people had been killed trying to access food since the end of May, when the U.S.-based Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started distributing food. Of these deaths, 615 were registered near GHF sites and 183 on the routes of mainly U.N. aid convoys.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said on July 10 that the population of Gaza had fallen to 2,129,724 from 2,226,544 in 2023. Some 100,000 Palestinians are estimated to have left Gaza since the war started.
ISRAELI DEATHS
Between October 7 2023 and July 13 2025, according to official Israeli sources, almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict. This includes 1,200 killed on October 7 and 446 soldiers killed in Gaza or along the border in Israel since the beginning of the ground operation in October 2023. Of these, 37 soldiers were killed and 197 injured since the re-escalation of hostilities in March. An estimated 50 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including 28 hostages who have been declared dead and whose bodies are being withheld.
DISPLACEMENT
Since March 18 this year, the Israeli military has issued 54 displacement orders, covering about 81% of the Gaza Strip. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said this has meant that more than 700,000 people had been forced to relocate during this period. As of July 9, 86% of the Gaza Strip is within Israeli-militarised zones or under displacement orders. Many people have sought refuge in overcrowded displacement sites, makeshift shelters, damaged buildings and streets, OCHA says.
FOOD AND HUNGER
WFP said that since May 21, when border crossings re-opened to limited amounts of its aid, the U.N. agency had dispatched more than 1,200 trucks carrying 18,247 metric tons of food aid, according to a July 5 update.
“Despite these efforts, the food delivered to date is still a tiny fraction of what a population of over two million people need to survive,” it said.
Most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza are intercepted by hungry civilians, it said. It added that its target, agreed with Israel, was to bring 2,000 metric tons of food aid into Gaza every day.
Some 470,000 people are expected to face “catastrophic hunger” between May and September of this year, WFP said. Malnutrition is surging and some 90,000 children and women urgently need treatment, it added.
The GHF began delivering food at the end of May from a small number of distribution centres. It operates outside the United Nations and is supported by Israel. It said on July 8 that it had delivered more than 66 million free meals in over a month. Reaching its sites has proved often deadly for locals.
The Israeli military has acknowledged that Palestinian civilians were harmed near aid distribution centres, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called “lessons learned”.
REPORTED DAMAGE
An estimated 436,000 housing units (92% of the total) have been damaged or destroyed, OCHA reported on July 9, with 70% of all structures and 81% of all classified roads damaged or destroyed in the territory. 83% of arable land, 83% of agricultural water wells and 71% of greenhouses have been damaged, according to a U.N. report released in April.
HEALTHCARE
OCHA said only 18 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals were functioning, but only on a partial basis. Ten out of 16 field hospitals are operational. Just over a third of Gaza’s primary health care centres were partially functioning.
UNICEF said more than one million children were in need of some sort of mental health and psycho-social support. OCHA said 1,580 health care workers had been killed in the conflict.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Maayan Lubell and Ros Russell)
