The war in numbers

Since Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declared his intention to destroy the terrorist organization Hamas following its terrorist attack, fighting has been raging in Gaza. The destruction and suffering have reached unimaginable proportions. The facts about a year of bloodshed.

From the lecture halls of elite American universities to the squares of Berlin-Neukölln, from the UN General Assembly in New York to the administrative court in Düsseldorf: since October 7, 2023, the day of the barbaric attack by Hamas and the fighting it unleashed in the Gaza Strip, the world has been a different place.

The war dominates the highly emotional debates on campuses and in the streets, in parliaments and on social media channels through daily news reports, images, and videos. The war, which affects millions of people worldwide, has brought unimaginable suffering to the people of Israel and Gaza, which can never be comprehended by numbers alone. Nevertheless, the facts that the war has created in one year tell a significant, if not the most compelling, story. Here is a selection.

1,200 dead in Israel

They killed elderly people and children, security forces and festival-goers: almost 1,200 Israelis and other nationals lost their lives in the attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7. The murderers came from the Gaza Strip and killed their victims in their homes and kibbutzim, on the streets and while celebrating.

42,000 dead in Gaza

In the fighting in the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing almost daily since the Hamas attack on October 7, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has reported a total of nearly 42,000 deaths. Approximately 97,000 people have been injured. Although the authority is controlled by Hamas, its reported figures are considered reliable. Both UN organizations and Western governments recognize the authority as a reliable source. A study published in the reputable scientific journal The Lancet also found no evidence of falsification. However, the figures cannot be independently verified.

97 hostages in the hands of Hamas

Almost a hundred people are still believed to be held in Hamas' tunnel systems. On October 7, 251 people were abducted. Some of them, mainly children and elderly people, were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners in the first few weeks, with 117 hostages released by the end of November. Despite its superiority, however, the Israeli military has so far only been able to rescue a few hostages alive. In addition to the hostages taken on October 7, two other Israelis are still in captivity. They were kidnapped between 2014 and 2015. It is uncertain whether they are still alive.

12,000 bombs on Gaza

In the first two months since the attack on October 7, Israel has dropped 12,000 bombs on the Gaza Strip. This was the conclusion of an investigation by the NGO Handicap International (HI). However, it is difficult to say how accurate this figure is. On October 12, just a few days after the bombing began, the Israeli Air Force announced that it had fired 6,000 bombs at Hamas targets – half of the 12,000 bombs counted by HI. There is also an estimate circulating that Israel dropped 70,000 tons of bombs by the end of April. There are currently no exact figures on the total bombing of Gaza by Israel.

1,900,000 people fleeing their homes

90 percent of Gaza's entire population is displaced within the Gaza Strip. Around 60 percent of houses and apartments in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed. For many of the internally displaced persons, this means there is no prospect of returning home.

163,314 Buildings damaged

The images from Gaza give us an idea, but only a view from above allows us to truly gauge the extent of the destruction in Gaza. Calculations based on satellite data and specially trained algorithms show that more than 60 percent of the buildings in Gaza have now been damaged. In the first phase of the war, the destruction was concentrated in the north and in Gaza City, while air strikes prepared the way for further advances. By November 22, around 38,000 buildings had already been damaged. Between November and April, fighting spread across the entire Gaza Strip, with 132,000 buildings hit, 83,000 of them severely. Most recently, more buildings were destroyed, particularly in the southern city of Rafah, bringing the number of damaged houses to 163,314 in August 2024.