Hello and welcome to the details of Gaza’s destruction in numbers: 170,000 buildings, 46,000 lives, 68pc roads, US$50b to rebuild and now with the details
Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - A man carries the shrouded body person killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza City the previous night, at Al-Ahli Arab hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital, on January 16, 2025, following a truce announcement amid the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. — AFP pic
PARIS, Jan 17 — The war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, which on Wednesday agreed a ceasefire, has killed tens of thousands of people and created a humanitarian disaster.
The fragile ceasefire deal is due to start on Sunday, but still has to be approved by Israel’s cabinet.
The sheer scale of bombardment and violence of the fighting have disfigured the densely populated Palestinian territory’s urban landscape.
AFP looks at the material impact of the war.
170,000 buildings damaged or destroyed
Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Before the war 2.4 million people lived on a 365-square-kilometre strip of land.
By December 1, 2024, nearly 69 per cent of the buildings in Gaza had been destroyed or damaged, according to satellite imagery analysed by the UN’s Satellite Centre (UNOSAT). That amounts to 170,812 buildings.
US researchers Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek, who use satellite imagery with different methodology, counted 172,015 damaged or destroyed buildings in Gaza on January 11, 2025.
Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel resulted in the death of more than 1,200 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
That figure includes hostages killed while in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Since October 7, 2023, at least 46,788 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to data provided by the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Those figures are acknowledged as reliable by the UN.
Rafah city half destroyed
Before the war, Gaza City in the territory’s north was home to some 600,000 people. Almost three-quarters of its buildings (74.2 per cent) have been damaged or destroyed.
In Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city along the border with Egypt, the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in early May.
By the end of that month, nearly 48.7 per cent of the buildings in Rafah had been hit, against 33.9 per cent the previous month.
Although relatively spared compared with Gaza City, gutted facades and buildings stand testament to the scars of war.
Rights group Amnesty International said that more than 90 per cent of the buildings along 58 square kilometres of Gaza’s border territory with Israel appear to have been “destroyed or severely damaged” between October 2023 and May 2024.
The United Nations has estimated that reconstruction in the territory would take up to 15 years and cost as much as US$50 billion (RM225 billion).
Half of hospitals not functioning
During the war, Gaza’s hospitals have been repeatedly attacked by Israel, which accused Hamas of using them for military purposes, a charge the militant group denies.
Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the few medical facilities still operational in northern Gaza, is now empty and out of service since a major Israeli strike in late December, according to the World Health Organisation.
By December 31, just 18 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, or half, were partially functioning, according to the WHO, with a total capacity of 1,800 beds.
Data from UNOSAT and geographic database OpenStreetMap also indicates that more than 83 per cent of Gaza’s mosques have been damaged or destroyed.
Nearly 90 per cent of schools damaged
The territory’s largely UN-run schools, where many civilians have sought refuge from the fighting, have also paid a heavy price, with the Israeli military accusing Hamas of using them to conceal fighters.
As of December 1, 2024, Unicef counted 496 schools damaged — nearly 88 per cent of its count of 564 facilities. There have been direct hits on 396 schools.
68 per cent of farmland
According to UN satellite imagery from August 26, 68 per cent of Gaza’s farmland (103 square kilometres) has been damaged. That includes 79 per cent of agricultural land in north Gaza and 57 per cent of such land in Rafah.
The destruction of irrigation systems, orchards, machinery and barns is even greater, with between 80 per cent and 96 per cent “decimated” since the beginning of 2024, according to a report from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in September.
In addition, 68 per cent of Gaza’s road network has been damaged.
About 1,190 kilometres of roads have been destroyed, 415 kilometres badly damaged and 1,440 kilometres moderately damaged, according to a preliminary analysis by UNOSAT, taking into account data up to August 18. — AFP
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