Since the beginning of the war, the population of Gaza has decreased by 6 percent

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Gaza’s population has shrunk by 6% since the start of war with Israel nearly 15 months ago, with nearly 100,000 Palestinians fleeing the area and more than 55,000 dead, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said.

About 45,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed since the war began, while another 11,000 are missing, the bureau said, citing figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

During the war, Gaza’s population dropped by about 160,000 to 2.1 million; More than one million, or 47 percent, of children under the age of 18, PCBS said.

He added that Israel “has launched a brutal attack on Gaza targeting all forms of life; people, buildings and essential infrastructure…whole families have been erased from the civil register. There is a terrible human and material loss.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the PCBS information was “fabricated, exaggerated and manipulated to discredit Israel.”

Israel has been accused of genocide in Gaza as the death and destruction continues to mount.

The International Court of Justice, which is the highest legal body of the United Nations, decided last January that Israel must prevent the genocide against the Palestinians, and Pope Francis suggested that the international community study whether Israel’s operation in Gaza is genocide.

In the year Israel has repeatedly denied genocide accusations, saying it respects international law and has the right to self-defense, saying the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and escalated the current war.

According to the PCBS, 22% of Gaza’s population is currently at the level of severe food insecurity, according to the Integrated Food Security Classification Criteria, a global monitoring.

Of these, 22 percent of the 3,500 children are at risk of death due to malnutrition and malnutrition, the bureau said.