Thousands of bombs, one looming famine: escalating Gaza war crisis in numbers

The strip’s starving population are now living under Israel’s Operation Gideon’s Chariots. Alicja Hagopian reports

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It has been around 80 days since Israel launched “pre-emptive” strikes on Gaza in March, effectively ending a fragile ceasefire with Hamas and resuming the conflict.

Two months later, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government launched Operation Gideon’s Chariots, an intensification of military action in Gaza with the aim of taking control of the entire strip. It has seen mass evacuation orders and restricted flows of aid with widespread reports of food shortages.

The latest figures from the Hamas-run health ministry say that 54,607 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and a further 125,341 people injured, since around 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023.

Since the ceasefire broke in mid-March, Israel’s attacks on Gaza have ramped up significantly, with around 1,500 strikes recorded. May has been the most intensive month since 7 October, according to conflict specialist non-profit ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data).

At the same time, Gaza has faced looming famine and an ongoing aid crisis. Aid was blocked for over two months from early March, with no food allowed to cross into Gaza; forcing bakeries and organisations like the World Food Kitchen to shutter their operations.

On 19 May, Israel announced that aid would finally enter Gaza, but only through the newly established, US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The first aid trucks entered Gaza on 25 May, but only lasted a week before GHF paused operations last Tuesday after 58 Palestinians were killed near distribution centres in southern Gaza. Aid distribution in Gaza was halted on Friday after the US and the GHF said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was again paused on Saturday after the GHF claimed it was facing threats from Hamas.