Gaza: 42% of housing units destroyed or damaged in Israeli attacks, UN says

ِAt least 42 percent of all housing units in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged as a result of Israel's continuous strikes, the UN humanitarian office said.

"About 15,100 housing units were destroyed, and 10,656 housing units were rendered uninhabitable," the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a press statement sent to The New Arab.

"Moreover, 139,000 housing units were subjected to minor to moderate damage, pointing to the destruction of entire neighborhoods, especially in Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Shujaiya, the area between Gaza and the Beach refugee camp, and Abasan Kabira in Khan Yunis," OCHA added.

The statement explained that an assessment of the North Gaza Governorate area, conducted by the United Nations Satellite Center, identified 927 destroyed buildings and 4,337 buildings that suffered moderate to severe damage, equivalent to about 15 percent of all buildings in that area.

The evaluation was based on comparing images collected on 15 October 2023 with those collected on 1 May 2023, according to OCHA.

OCHA stressed that Israel's attacks have continued "unabated" at a time when the cumulative death toll has reached over 4,385 Palestinians, of whom 62 percent are children and women, while more than 1,000 Palestinian people have been reported missing and are presumed to be trapped or died under the rubble.

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 98 Palestinian families lost ten or more members. Ninety-five Palestinian families lost between 6 and 9 members, and 357 families lost between two and five members.

The ministry reported that the number of deaths reported in Gaza in the current round of fighting is about 84 percent higher than the total number of deaths during the 50-day round of fighting in the summer of 2014, when 2,251 Palestinians were killed.

Because of the ongoing Israeli airstrikes, about 1.4 million people are internally displaced in Gaza, with about 566,000 people living in precarious conditions at 148 emergency shelters designated for UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.