Part 4
By Ahmad Yahya
A Portrait of a Humanitarian Catastrophe
Today’s Gaza is a clear mirror of a complete tragedy, one that under the shadow of the world’s complacent and quiet silence has engulfed a corner of the world in darkness. This is a war whose aim is not merely a conflict over land, but the gradual erasure and destruction of an entire people.
In a comprehensive report, the Palestinian government’s media office has depicted the scale of this unprecedented tragedy during 2025 in such alarming dimensions that human rights organizations have described this year as the deadliest for Palestinians since 1967.
During 2025, the number of martyrs and missing persons in Gaza reached 29,117, including 5,437 children and 2,475 women. The horror of these figures becomes even greater when it is known that the number of injured has reached 62,853, and around 3,400 others remain buried under rubble, missing, with their fate unknown.
This is only one chapter of the bloodshed of the past two years. Since October 2023, the number of martyrs has exceeded 72,000, of whom 98 percent are residents of Gaza, and more than ten percent of the population of this area has either been killed or injured.
The tragic outcome of this process is an unprecedented decline in population. The population of the Gaza Strip has decreased by 10.6 percent over two years, falling from approximately 2.38 million to 2.13 million, meaning that on average around 310 people have decreased each day.
This decline is not only a direct result of the war, but also the combined outcome of killings, disappearances, forced displacement, and a sharp drop in birth rates caused by hunger, psychological pressure, and insecurity.
Alongside killings, the policy of systematic blockade and engineered starvation has been used as an even more deadly weapon. This policy has been implemented so harshly that the year 2025 has been recorded as the deadliest year of hunger in Gaza’s history.
During this year, more than 650,000 children were at risk of death due to hunger, and 40,000 infants faced serious danger because of the lack of food. The images of starving children holding empty bowls became a global symbol of this tragedy.
Due to the closure of routes, the zionist regime completely blocked the entry of 132,000 aid trucks during 220 days of 2025, and even during temporary ceasefires it did not stop placing obstacles. This blockade was so severe that the United Nations officially declared a famine in the northern Gaza Strip in 2025, a situation in which all thresholds of hunger had been crossed.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, in that same year 475 people died solely due to hunger and malnutrition, of whom 165 were children.
The scale of destruction in Gaza is complete and unprecedented. During 2025, 90 percent of urban infrastructure was destroyed, and in that same year alone, 106,400 housing units were completely wiped out.
Around 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced, and 213,000 families, nearly two million people, have been forced multiple times to leave their homes and communities. The direct economic losses in 2025 alone amount to 33 billion dollars.
However, the devastation is not limited to homes. Ninety-five percent of schools have been damaged, 34 mosques have been completely destroyed, 80 percent of agricultural land has been wiped out, and water and sanitation networks have been systematically targeted.
Amid this destruction, the health crisis has made survival increasingly difficult. In 2025 alone, 22 hospitals have gone out of service, and overall 94 percent of healthcare facilities have been damaged or destroyed. In such conditions, 12,500 cancer patients are facing a serious risk of death, and 47,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are exposed to severe health dangers. According to reports, more than 90 percent of the population cannot afford basic necessities, and due to the destruction of water and sanitation systems, the spread of infectious diseases has become a widespread threat.
The result of all this is a scene of a complete humanitarian catastrophe. Yet the world has chosen a meaningful and heartbreaking silence in the face of this injustice. The fire that is burning Gaza is not only turning land, stones, and human lives into ashes; it is also reducing the conscience of humanity and the moral foundations of modern civilization to ashes. This global silence is itself an inseparable part of this catastrophe.
