RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said 2025 marked the worst humanitarian and demographic year for Palestinians, driven by Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip and escalating violations in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

In an end-of-year report, the bureau said mass killings, forced displacement, and the widespread destruction of basic infrastructure caused serious and long-term damage to population stability, economic and social conditions, and human rights across the Palestinian lands.

Citing the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the bureau said more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s assault on Oct. 7, 2023, with 98% of the deaths recorded in Gaza, the highest toll in the history of Israeli attacks on Palestinians.

By the end of December 2025, the victims included 18,592 children and about 12,400 women, while about 11,000 people remained missing and the number of wounded rose to 171,195.

Since the start of the war, which Israel launched with US support, about 100,000 Palestinians were forced to leave Gaza, while nearly two million people were displaced from their homes out of a prewar population of about 2.2 million.

In the West Bank, intensified Israeli military operations and settler violence killed 1,102 Palestinians and wounded 9,034 others since October 2023.

Population decline

The bureau said the scale of casualties and displacement directly reshaped population figures.

The Palestinian population stood at about 5.56 million by the end of 2025, including 3.43 million in the West Bank and 2.13 million in Gaza.

Gaza’s population fell by about 254,000 people, which is a 10.6% decline compared with prewar estimates, marking an unprecedented demographic contraction caused by killings, displacement and the collapse of living conditions.

The number of Palestinians worldwide reached an estimated 15.49 million by the end of 2025, with 5.56 million living inside Palestinian territories and 1.86 million inside Israel.

About 8.82 million Palestinians live in the diaspora, including 6.82 million in Arab countries, reflecting the continued expansion of forced displacement rooted in political and historical factors.

Health system collapse in Gaza

Israel’s ongoing offensive since October 2023 caused a near-total collapse of Gaza’s health system, the bureau reported, citing World Health Organization data.

About 94% of health care facilities and hospitals in Gaza were damaged or destroyed, with only 19 of 36 hospitals partially operating at severely limited capacity because of shortages of medicine, medical supplies and fuel, along with the exhaustion of health workers.

Hospitals currently have about 2,000 available beds to serve more than two million people, far below minimum health needs, especially amid the surge in wounded and sick patients.

The bureau warned that 40 hospital beds faced immediate loss in facilities located in evacuation zones, while another 850 beds could be lost if security conditions around health centers continued to deteriorate.

Health Ministry data showed about 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza faced severe health risks due to the lack or limited availability of maternal health care.

An additional 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women struggled to access prenatal and postnatal services.

More than 70% of Gaza’s population relied on contaminated or unsafe drinking water, the bureau said, adding that by July 2025, 95% of households could not access safe drinking water.

About 96% of households experienced water insecurity, and 90% reported severe deterioration in water quality, contributing to the spread of intestinal diseases, particularly among children.

Economic collapse

The education sector suffered widespread destruction, particularly in Gaza, where more than 179 public schools were completely destroyed by early December 2025, while 218 others were damaged or targeted, including 118 public schools and 100 run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA.)

In higher education, 63 university buildings in Gaza were completely destroyed, while eight universities in the West Bank were repeatedly raided and vandalized.

Education-sector casualties were extensive, with 18,979 students killed, including 18,863 in Gaza, along with 1,399 university students, 797 teachers and administrators, and 241 higher-education staff members.

Economic indicators for 2025 also showed an unprecedented collapse of the Palestinian economy.

Gross domestic product in Gaza contracted by 84% compared with 2023 amid near-total economic paralysis, while GDP in the West Bank fell 13%, despite modest growth of 4.4% compared with 2024.

Gaza’s economy continued to shrink in 2025 by an additional 8.7%, and unemployment reached record levels at 46% of the Palestinian labor force, 28% in the West Bank and 78% in Gaza, among the highest rates globally, the bureau added.

About 650,000 Palestinians were unemployed by the end of the year, underscoring the depth of the economic and social crisis facing Palestinians, the report said.