Three Months of Hamas-Israel War: 22,835 People in Gaza Killed, 9,000 of Them were Children

Civilians displaced by Israeli attacks on Gaza. (Source: UNRWA/Ashraf Amra)

JAKARTA - The Palestinian Authority says that around one in every 100 people in Gaza has died since the Hamas-Israel war erupted in the enclave last October.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announced in its daily report on Monday that at least 22,835 people had been killed in the besieged enclave since the start of the war, as quoted by CNN January 9.

This enormous death toll means that 1 percent of the total pre-war population of 2.27 million has now been wiped out.

According to the ministry, an additional 58,416 people were injured, meaning more than one in 40 Gazans have now been injured in the conflict. The ministry obtained data from hospitals in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Last month, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it believed it had killed two Palestinian civilians for every Hamas militant, a ratio an IDF spokesperson described to CNN at the time as "very positive." Israel also claims that more than 8,000 of the people killed were militants.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health further said that more than 5,300 of the victims killed were women and more than 9,000 were children.

With the child population in Gaza before the war standing at around 1.1 million, according to UNICEF, this means that one in every 120 children living in the territory has been killed.

Separately, statistics released by the international organization Save the Children said that more than 10 children on average have lost one or both legs every day in Gaza since October.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), 90 percent of Gaza residents have been displaced.

It is known that the IDF began its operations in Gaza immediately after Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7. It killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 200 others.

Some of the hostages taken to Gaza have been freed by Hamas, in exchange for Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons.

As of last week, the Israeli government believed 132 hostages from October 7 were still being held in Gaza, dozens of whom were thought to be dead.