The number of residents in Gaza has fallen by 6 percent since the beginning of the war, according to the statistics agency | News from Gaza

The population has shrunk by about 160,000 since the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza, according to the official Palestinian Statistics Agency.

Gaza’s population has fallen by 6 percent since Israel’s devastating assault on the besieged Palestinian territory began nearly 15 months ago, according to the official Palestinian Statistics Agency.

About 100,000 Palestinians have left the enclave, while more than 55,000 are believed to have lost their lives, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said on Tuesday.

Some 45,500 Palestinians, more than half women and children, have been killed since the war began and another 11,000 are missing, the office said, citing figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

As such, Gaza’s population shrank by about 160,000 during the war to 2.1 million, with more than a million, or 47 percent of the total remaining population, being children under the age of 18, PCBS said.

It said that Israel “carried out a brutal aggression against Gaza targeting all kinds of life there; people, buildings and vital infrastructure… whole families were erased from the registers. The human and material losses are catastrophic.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the PCBS data was “fabricated, inflated and manipulated to vilify Israel.”

Leading human rights groups have accused Israel of carrying out acts of genocide in its war on Gaza, citing the massive scale of death and destruction and the denial of basic services, including humanitarian aid.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest legal body, ruled last January that Israel must prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians, while Roman Catholic Pope Francis suggested the global community should examine whether Israel’s campaign in Gaza constitutes genocide.

Israel has repeatedly denied the accusations, saying it abides by international law and has the right to defend itself against Hamas.

Israeli forces continued to close vital Gaza border crossings, preventing the entry of desperately needed aid, including food and medicine.

An even tighter siege has been imposed in the north of the Strip since the Israeli army launched a renewed ground offensive there in October. Residents there are trapped, facing imminent starvation and enduring relentless Israeli bombardment as key medical facilities are attacked and burned.

The PCBS said that about 22 percent of Gaza’s population currently faces catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification criteria of the global watchdog.

That 22 percent includes about 3,500 children at risk of dying from malnutrition and lack of food, the office said.

Some 60,000 pregnant women also face serious health risks in Gaza, the report said, due to a crumbling health sector and a general lack of access to healthcare.

Babies are often born in difficult circumstances, with families unable to provide them with adequate support such as basic health care.

A few infants have lost their lives in recent days without access to health facilities and due to a sudden drop in temperatures, the Gaza government’s media office said.

Israel’s war displaced almost the entire population of Gaza, forcing tens of thousands of people to enter improvised tents in outdoor camps.