Gaza Strip population ‘down 6%’ since launch of genocide

Gaza’s population has declined by around six per cent, or 160,000 people, with more than 55,000 killed and 100,000 people who have left Gaza since Israel launched its genocide against the enclave in October, 2023, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) has announced.

In a report issued on Tuesday, the PCBS said that the Strip’s population has fallen to 2.1 million during the genocide, with more than a million, or 47 per cent, being children under the age of 18.

“Israel has raged a brutal war of aggression against Gaza targeting all kinds of life, humans, buildings and vital infrastructure… entire families have been erased from the civil register. There are catastrophic human and material losses,” said the bureau.

Somewhat predictably, Israel’s foreign ministry claimed that the statistics are fabricated. However, they match the estimate of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). As of July 2024, OCHA estimated that about 2.1 million Palestinians remain in the Gaza Strip.

A report by the government media office in Gaza confirmed that the number of missing persons since the beginning of the war is now around 11,200, and 1,413 Palestinian families have been erased from the civil registry. The Israeli occupation army has also left just one member alive in 3,467 Palestinian families.

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