Gaza toll tops 73,000 as war reaches 1,000-day mark
Gaza officials reported widespread destruction and deaths as postwar governance talks and West Bank settlement moves advanced.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
4 min read
Gaza marked 1,000 days since Israel’s war began, with Gaza authorities reporting that most of the enclave has been destroyed and more than 73,000 people have been killed since October 2023. The milestone came during another week of reported Israeli attacks, medical evacuation demands, postwar governance moves and expanded settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, according to Al Jazeera.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said more than 90 percent of the Strip had been destroyed, Al Jazeera reported. Gaza’s Ministry of Health put the death toll at 73,098 by July 6, including 1,072 people killed since what was described as the October “ceasefire”.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces killed at least three Palestinians in a drone strike near al-Hilu station on July 1. It said at least seven more Palestinians were killed over the next 48 hours, citing local field reports, including a child killed by a bomb dropped from a quadcopter at Shujayea junction and 10-year-old Tareq Sabah near Khan Younis.
Displaced people in the al-Mawasi area were also hit by repeated strikes on tents during the week, according to Al Jazeera. Outside al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, sick and wounded Palestinians protested to demand medical evacuations, while Gaza health authorities said more than 20,000 people were waiting to leave through the restricted Rafah crossing.
Al Jazeera also reported worsening concern over Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who has been held in an Israeli prison for more than 555 days. His son, Elyas Abu Safiya, said a lawyer who recently visited him reported that he was struggling to breathe and speak; the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for his immediate release.
Postwar authority plan advances
Representatives of a US-led Board of Peace, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, met in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, to discuss the “temporary reconstruction” of areas of Gaza designated as outside Hamas control, Al Jazeera reported.
On Monday, Gaza’s Hamas-run government said it was resigning and transferring authority to a technocratic committee appointed under the Board of Peace, in line with US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war and oversee rebuilding, according to Al Jazeera. The transfer had not yet taken place in practice.
Ali Shath, head of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, said the committee was ready to take over once required conditions were in place, including a single authority under one law and one force. Al Jazeera reported that the Board of Peace also said UNRWA “has no place in the new Gaza,” a position rejected by Palestinian leaders.
West Bank settlement moves widen
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid a foundation stone Sunday for an Israeli “heritage centre” at the former Qalandia Airport, north of occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera reported. The site was once Palestine’s only airport and is part of the Atarot settlement project.
Israel’s Security Cabinet approved 13 new settlements on July 3 in the Binyamin bloc, along Route 60 and toward the Jordan Valley, according to Al Jazeera. The Jerusalem Governorate said the plan would cut East Jerusalem off from nearby Palestinian areas and break territorial continuity.
The Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies said new outposts rose from an annual average of about eight between 2012 and 2022 to 32 in 2023, 62 in 2024 and 86 in 2025, Al Jazeera reported. Wafa and the rights group Al-Baidar reported new outpost activity during the week near Kafr Ra’i and the al-Ma’azi Bedouin community.
Al Jazeera, citing Haaretz, said Israel approved a 27-million-shekel, or $9m, plan to expand hotels in the occupied West Bank. Wafa also quoted Palestinian official Jabr al-Rajoub as saying Israel was moving 142 archaeological sites from military to civilian Israeli administration.
Checkpoints, violence and displacement
Al Jazeera reported that four-month-old Ahmad Marouf Zeid died of cardiac arrest after Israeli soldiers blocked his family from reaching an ambulance at a military gate near Deir Ammar refugee camp, west of Ramallah. Ramallah and el-Bireh Governor Laila Ghannam said the delay lasted more than an hour despite the baby’s critical condition.
Wafa reported closures around several West Bank towns, including Sinjil, where six main gates and 16 secondary and agricultural roads were sealed. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said more than 2,300 Palestinians, including more than 1,000 children, have been displaced in the West Bank in 2026, according to Al Jazeera.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.