More than 90 percent of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed, and Israeli forces are in control of 80 percent of the besieged territory, authorities in the enclave say, as the world marks 1,000 days since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began.
Tallying up the extent of the damage since Israel launched its war on October 7, 2023, Gaza’s Government Media Office said in a statement on Thursday that at least 73,066 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave. More than 21,500 of those killed were children, including 1,022 babies, it added. A further 9,500 people are missing, many believed to be buried under rubble, while 173,514 have been wounded.
It added that about 223,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped by Israel on Gaza during the war – 16 times more than what the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 with the atomic bomb.
With most of Gaza in ruins, the “ceasefire” framework meant to end the conflict is also faltering six months after its centerpiece body was established. The US-created Board of Peace, established in January to oversee the “ceasefire” and steer reconstruction under a three-phase plan endorsed by the UN Security Council, has failed to secure Israeli compliance, analysts said. Instead of a gradual withdrawal, Israel has expanded its control, and only a third of the aid trucks it committed to allow in daily are entering. Israeli forces have also killed more than 1,000 Palestinians since the October truce took effect.
Gaza’s entire population is at extreme risk of famine, with nearly 400,000 people surviving on one meal a day and 62 percent of primary healthcare medications out of stock. The UN said human development in Gaza has been set back 77 years, with life expectancy falling to 40. The scale of destruction has left an estimated 68 million tonnes of rubble, of which only about 310,000 tonnes (less than 0.5 percent) has been cleared – a pace that would take more than 140 years to finish.
Gaza City Mayor Yahya al-Sarraj told Al Jazeera: “We lost about 85 to 90 percent of our resources, our buildings and our infrastructure. We feel in many cases paralysed.” He said municipalities had drawn up a comprehensive reconstruction blueprint, the “Phoenix Plan”, and that once borders open, “people here will not wait and will start building their homes by themselves.”
Negotiations over the next phase remain deadlocked, chiefly over Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm before reconstruction proceeds. Some Gaza residents said weapons should be under the authority of a legitimate governing body. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: “We need to complete the conquest of the remaining area, defeat Hamas and establish a belt of Jewish settlements that will serve as a security buffer.”
In Israel on Thursday, commemorations marked 1,000 days since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks. Protests and marches were held across the country, with demonstrators accusing the government of blocking an independent inquiry into its security failures. Five thousand Israelis have moved to southern areas near Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to reports.
Source: www.aljazeera.com