H.E. Dr. Ola Awad, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) presents a brief on the status of the Palestinian people at the end of 2023

More than 22,000 martyrs have been killed in Palestine during 2023, 98% of them in Gaza Strip, which is the largest toll Palestine has witnessed since the Nakba of 1948.

By the end of 2023, the population in Gaza Strip had reached 2.3 million individuals, including 1.06 million children under 18 years old, constituting 47% of the population of Gaza Strip, and 339 thousand children under 5 years old, constituting 15% of the population of Gaza Strip. More than two months after the aggression on Gaza, 40% of the martyrs were children and about 30% were women.

The number of martyrs in Palestine since the beginning of 2023 has reached (22,404) martyrs, including (22,141) martyrs since October 7^th, 2023, 98% of whom are in Gaza Strip, including about 9,000 children and 6,450 women. While the number of martyrs in the West Bank as of  October7^th, 319 martyrs, including 111 children and 4 women. Also, more than 100 journalists were martyred according to the records of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, while the number of missing persons reported in Gaza Strip reached more than 7,000 missing persons, including 67% of children and women. Approximately 1,900,000 citizens were displaced far from their places of residence.

According to data from the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, and Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, the number of detainees in Israeli occupation prisons reached about 7,800 detainees, as of the end of November 2023, including 76 female detainees and 260 children. Whereas the number of administrative detainees (detainees without charge) reached 2,870 detainees.

While the Israeli occupation is building hundreds of settlement units, where more than 745,000 settlers live in 151 settlements established on Palestinian lands in the West Bank at the end of 2022, the Israeli occupation has partially or completely demolished and destroyed more than 1,200 buildings and facilities in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), according to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Since the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip on October 7^th, 2023, the Israeli occupation has completely destroyed at least 65 thousand housing units, in addition to partially destroying more than 290 thousand housing units.

In addition, the residents of Gaza Strip lack the basic essentials of life, including housing, food, and water. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) indicated that no less than 40% of the population of Gaza Strip is at risk of famine, which means that the population of Gaza Strip is suffering from catastrophic hunger, and this indicates that Gaza Strip is now considered one of the most famished regions in the world.

A severe water crisis and limited access to water threaten the lives of residents in Gaza Strip

Gaza Strip suffers from a severe crisis accessing water, where under normal conditions in the times before October 7^th, the average per capita consumption of water in Gaza Strip was estimated at approximately 82.7 liters/person/day. With the outbreak of the aggression, estimates indicated that the population of Gaza Strip can barely reach between 1-3 liters/person/day only, as the percentage of supplies from water sources has decreased by 90%, and therefore the percentage of water consumption has decreased by 92% compared to what it was before the Israeli aggression, as there is only one pipeline that supplies the southern areas only with about 1,100 cubic meters per hour, while the northern governorates of Gaza Strip suffer from a complete lack of access to safe water.

39% of the affected agricultural area is in North Gaza Governorate

Data indicate that 18% of the agricultural areas in Gaza Strip were damaged, and the direct and greatest damage was in North Gaza governorates, as the damage affected 39% of the agricultural areas in North Gaza Governorate and 27% in Gaza Governorate.

Data of the Agriculture Census, 2021 indicated that 32% of the cultivated area in Gaza Strip is in Khan Yunis Governorate, and 29% in North Gaza Governorate.

About 14.63 million Palestinians live around the world at the end of 2023

The estimated number of Palestinians at the end of 2023 is about 14.63 million, of whom 5.55 million live in the State of Palestine, where more than the third lives in Gaza Strip. In addition, 1.75 million Palestinians live in the 1948 territories, while about 6.56 million live in Arab countries and 772 thousand live in foreign countries. It is expected that the number of Palestinians will reach approximately 7.3 million in historical Palestine, while the number of Jews will reach 7.2 million by the end of 2023.

65% of individuals in the State of Palestine are under 30 years old

By the end of  2023, the percentage of individuals (0-5) reached 16% of the total population in Palestine, 15% in the West Bank and 18% in Gaza Strip, while the percentage of individuals under 18 years old reached 44%, 41% in the West Bank. Western and 47% in Gaza Strip, and the percentage of individuals under 30 years of age in Palestine reached 65% of the total population in Palestine; 63% in the West Bank and 68% in Gaza Strip. The percentage of individuals aged (65 years and over) reached 4%.

Based on the current events in Gaza Strip and the massacres committed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians and their households in Gaza Strip and the erasure of a large number of Palestinian families, regardless of their gender and age, it is not expected that there will be a major imbalance in the age and gender composition of the population.