On the evening of October 8, 2023, in the aftermath of the devastating Hamas attack that cost the lives of 1,200 people, the Israeli government formally proclaims war on the Palestinian militant group. The “gates of hell” promised by Israel opened for the Strip and its two million inhabitants: since then, bombs have rained down on the Palestinian enclave almost continuously, while the army launched a massive land invasion, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.
Two years later, Gaza is reduced to a pile of rubble. The toll speaks of at least 67 thousand dead and more than 168 thousand injured, including a large number of amputees. Among the victims, there are at least 20,000 children. According to the executive director of Unicef, Catherine Russell, 64,000 people have been killed or mutilated, including at least a thousand newborns.
There is practically not a single intact building in the entire Strip. According to OCHA (the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office), 92% of residential buildings and 88% of commercial buildings were damaged or destroyed. Unosat data, based on satellite images, indicates that at least 78% of the total structures have suffered the same fate. The same fate applies to 89% of the water and sanitation network, UN experts reported in July. Almost all schools (92%) need to be rebuilt. In recent weeks the IDF has blown up the few towers and skyscrapers still standing.
Almost 11 thousand Palestinians are currently detained in Israeli prisons, including 450 children and 87 women, stopped by the IDF in raids in Gaza or in the West Bank, where violence against Palestinians has escalated at the hands of settlers, amid general impunity and open support from the representatives of the messianic far right who sit in the Israeli government. At least 3,629 Palestinians are held in administrative detention which does not require charges or trial.
