The horror began on Saturday, October 7 and a month later it is still continuing.
That day, the Islamist group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing about 1,400 people and kidnapping more than 200, according to Israeli authorities.
Since then, Continued bombing and a recent Israeli ground invasion have killed more than 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to authorities in the Hamas-controlled Strip, and have caused devastating damage to its infrastructure.
Different UN offices and other international organizations have advocated for a ceasefire or, at least, a humanitarian pause, an option that the Israeli government has conditioned on it being used for the release of the more than 200 hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has also set itself the goal of eliminating Hamas’s military and government capabilities, to ensure that it cannot repeat an attack like the one on October 7.
Many analysts consider that this is a difficult objective to achieve and that, in any case, it promises a long and bloody war.
These are the figures that, so far, this conflict has produced.
The fatalities
Israel says more than 1,400 Israelis and foreigners have died as a result of the October attack launched by Hamas, a terrorist group banned in the UK, US and EU.
Israeli authorities identified 1,159 murdered during the attack of October 7. Of that total, they claim, 828 They were civilians and 31 they were minors old.
Meanwhile, as the war enters its fifth week, the death toll between Gaza and the occupied West Bank has reached an unprecedented milestone.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported on November 6 that more than 10,000 people have been killedincluding more than 4,100 children (that is, on average every 10 minutes a child is murdered).
Some politicians, including US President Joe Biden, question the accuracy of the figures provided by the Palestinian Health Ministry, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says they are reliable.
The injured and missing
The war has injured some 5,400 people in Israel and more than 25,400 in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli authorities and the Strip’s Health Ministry respectively.
Around 2,260 people they are missing in Gaza, including 1,270 children.
It is presumed that most of them are buried under the rubble.
The hostages
The Hamas surprise attack on October 7 created one of the largest hostage situations ever seen.
According to Israeli authorities, Hamas holds some 242 Israelis hostage and foreigners, among them more than 30 children.
The radical militant group says 57 of the abducted people were killed by Israeli attacks on its territory.
Since October 20, Hamas has freed four civilians, including a 17-year-old girl.
While the Israeli army said that on October 29 it rescued a female soldier held captive since the initial attack.
The displaced
More than 2.2 million people live in the Gaza Strip, more than half of whom are children.
On October 13, Israel warned civilians to evacuate the Gaza area north of the Wadi River and head south.
After a month of Israeli airstrikes, more than 200,000 homes in Gaza were reportedly damaged or destroyed. That is to say, approximately half of the households in the Strip, according to its authorities.
By November 5, it was said that around 1.5 million people in Gaza they were internally displaced and taking refuge in schools, churches, hospitals, public and UN buildings or staying with host families, according to figures from both Palestinian authorities and the United Nations.
Leaving Gaza is not an option for its inhabitants, since the Erez crossing into Israel is closed and the Rafah border crossing into Egypt is open only to evacuate foreign citizens and some of the wounded.
Deaths of health personnel
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, run by Hamas, says 16 of 35 hospitals (46%) and 51 of 76 medical centers in the Strip are now out of service due to attacks or lack of fuel, also for November 5.
According to the ministry, some 50 ambulances have been damaged, 31 of them are out of service and at least 175 health workers have died.
In accordance with international law, humanitarian workers and health personnel and their facilities must be protected.
The UN says at least 88 of its staff working for UNRWA, the agency supporting Palestinian refugees, were killed along with 18 civil defense workers.
As for journalists, whose safety and work must be protected by the 1949 Geneva Convention, 46 have been killed as of November 5, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The war between Israel and Gaza It has been the deadliest month for journalists covering the conflict over the past three decades, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The problem with water
For those who manage to survive the war, life is extremely difficult in Gaza, with food shortages, little water available and imminent health risks.
The WHO indicated in mid-October that families and children in Gaza were dependent on only three liters of water per person per day for drinking, cooking and hygiene. The minimum required, called the emergency threshold, is 15 liters per person and day.
Very few water supplies recently entered the enclave via the Rafah crossing and more of the infrastructure for this essential service has since been damaged.
On November 5, the UN agency OCHA reported that water consumption in Gaza had decreased by an average of 92% compared to pre-war levels, and that most of the 65 sewage pumping stations They were not operational.
On October 31, the WHO warned that mass displacement, overcrowding and damage to water and sanitation infrastructure could cause an “imminent public health catastrophe.”
*The UN clarified that it has not independently verified the figures provided by Palestinian and Israeli officials.
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