90 Percent of Gaza Destroyed as War Reaches 1,000 Days
Scale of Destruction in Gaza
More than 90 percent of the Gaza Strip has been destroyed, and Israeli forces are in control of 80 percent of the besieged territory, authorities in the enclave say, as the world marks 1,000 days since Israel’s war on Gaza began. [1] Tallying up the extent of the damage since Israel launched its war on October 7, 2023, Gaza’s Government Media Office said in a statement that at least 73,066 Palestinians have been killed in the enclave. [1] More than 21,500 of those killed in Gaza were children, including 1,022 babies, it added. [1] A further 9,500 people are missing, many believed to be buried under rubble, while 173,514 have been wounded. [1] It added that about 223,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped by Israel on Gaza during the war – 16 times more than what the United States dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945 with the atomic bomb. [1] With most of Gaza in ruins, the scale of destruction has left an estimated 68 million tonnes of rubble. [1] Only about 310,000 tonnes, less than 0.5 percent, has been cleared, according to the UN, a pace that would take more than 140 years to finish. [1] “We lost about 85 to 90 percent of our resources, our buildings and our infrastructure,” Gaza City Mayor Yahya al-Sarraj told Al Jazeera. [1] “We feel in many cases paralysed.” [1]
Ceasefire Framework Falters
The “ceasefire” framework meant to end the conflict is also faltering six months after its centrepiece body was established. [1] The US-created Board of Peace, established in January to oversee the “ceasefire” and steer reconstruction under a three-phase plan endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, has failed to secure Israeli compliance, analysts said. [1] Instead of a gradual withdrawal that the plan envisions, Israel has expanded its control of Gaza, and only a third of the aid trucks it committed to allow into the enclave daily are entering. [1] Israeli forces have also killed more than 1,000 Palestinians since the October truce took effect last year. [1] “There are no shared policies or even a shared vision,” analyst Iyad Jouda told Al Jazeera, adding that the board “has deviated from its main purpose”, which is “unifying the Gaza Strip and the West Bank”. [1] The board is also out of money as billions of dollars in pledges have yet to arrive. [1] The same uncertainty applies to the security side of the plan. [2] The Board of Peace has been working on a Palestinian police force and an International Stabilization Force (ISF), but the operational timeline remains unclear. [2] Moroccan officers arrived in Israel on June 18 to join the nascent ISF headquarters in southern Israel, according to the Board of Peace and reports citing the French global news agency AFP, but their arrival does not amount to an operational deployment inside Gaza. [2]
Reconstruction Plans Blocked
One of the latest ideas circulating around Gaza’s post-war transition is the creation of Hamas-free camps - or, in the more cautious language of planners, “temporary communities” - inside the Israeli-controlled Green Zone, where civilians could receive shelter, services, and protection under a future Palestinian civilian authority. [2] The proposal, meant to offer a practical starting point while diplomacy remains stalled, also exposes the central problem facing the Board of Peace: much of the plan’s institutional architecture exists on paper, while the mechanisms needed to implement it inside Gaza remain blocked, incomplete, or politically contested. [2] Representatives of the Board of Peace and affiliated bodies have been meeting in Cyprus this week, after a preparatory workshop in Cairo, to advance the work of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the Palestinian technocratic body expected to replace Hamas’ rule in the Strip. [2] The committee was announced earlier this year as a body intended to lead reconstruction and humanitarian relief, but it remains based outside Gaza and has not yet entered the enclave. [2] The Board of Peace’s immediate fallback plan appears to be the establishment of temporary communities in the Green Zone, including a first site reportedly planned near Rafah, in the part of Gaza currently held by the IDF. [2] Yet even this limited track faces major questions: whether Palestinians would voluntarily move into areas under Israeli military control; whether the NCAG would lose legitimacy by operating there; and whether Israel will approve the practical steps needed for construction and administration. [2] Public diplomatic framing remains clear: Hamas’ disarmament is the key to unlocking Phase Two of the Gaza plan. [2] The Board of Peace is expected to ask the UN Security Council to press Hamas to disarm, according to a report seen by The Associated Press. [2] The report states that the principal obstacle to full implementation remains Hamas’ refusal to accept verified decommissioning, relinquish control, and allow a civilian transition in Gaza. [2] Hamas has rejected that framing. [2] The group has accused the Board’s report of ignoring what the armed group considers Israeli violations of the ceasefire, including issues of broader humanitarian access, troop pullbacks, and restrictions at Gaza’s crossings. [2] That dispute has left the ceasefire framework caught in a sequencing trap. [2] Israel says it will not withdraw without full Hamas disarmament. [2] Hamas says it will not discuss disarmament before Israel addresses what Hamas considers a failure to implement Phase One and provides international guarantees. [2] The Board of Peace says reconstruction cannot begin where weapons remain. [2] Palestinians and Arab mediators argue that the absence of an Israeli withdrawal timeline and political horizon makes disarmament impossible to sell. [2] Dr. Gershon Baskin, co-founder and co-director of the Alliance for Two States and Middle East director of the International Communities Organization, argued that the Board of Peace should not wait for a perfect agreement before acting. [2] He told The Media Line that the NCAG should not remain “a committee waiting outside Gaza,” but should instead become a functioning authority inside the Strip. [2] Baskin’s proposal is built around the immediate creation of a Palestinian-administered Green Zone. [2] In his view, the NCAG should enter the Israeli-controlled area of Gaza, Palestinian police should deploy there, the ISF should take positions along the Yellow Line, and civilians should be given the option to move into areas where shelter, food, medical care, schools, and employment can be provided. [2]
Israeli Position and Commemorations
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said at the end of a meeting held on Monday evening with Alon Davidi, the mayor of the southern city of Sderot: “We need to complete the conquest of the remaining area, defeat Hamas and establish a belt of Jewish settlements that will serve as a security buffer for Sderot and the Gaza border communities.” [1] “Where there is no settlement, there is no security. We are not going back to the reality of before October 7” two years and nine months ago. [1] In Israel on Thursday, commemorations marked 1,000 days since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks on southern Israel. [1] Protests and marches were held across the country organised by the October Council, a group of bereaved families and former captives. [1] They displayed a banner reading “1,000 days of abandonment, neglect, cover-up and failure” and accused the Israeli government of blocking an independent inquiry into its security failures. [1] Protesters also tried to disrupt access to the Knesset. [1] Five thousand Israelis have moved to southern areas near Gaza since October 7, 2023, The Times of Israel reported. [1] At least 62,000 people lived there before the start of the war. [1] About 90 percent of residents have returned, and Israel’s government aims to have 124,000 people living there by 2030. [1]
Humanitarian and Long-term Impact
Gaza’s entire population is at extreme risk of famine with nearly 400,000 people surviving on one meal a day and 62 percent of primary healthcare medications out of stock. [1] The UN said human development in Gaza has been set back 77 years with life expectancy falling to 40. [1] Negotiations over the next phase remain deadlocked, chiefly over Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm before reconstruction proceeds. [1] “End the occupation first, and then weapons can be discussed,” Nasser Faram, a former detainee, told Al Jazeera while another Gaza resident, Hassan Sharaf, said weapons “should be under the authority of a legitimate governing body”. [1] Municipalities had drawn up a comprehensive reconstruction blueprint, the “Phoenix Plan”, and that once borders open, “people here will not wait and will start building their homes by themselves,” al-Sarraj said. [1]
What to watch next: The Board of Peace is expected to ask the UN Security Council to press Hamas to disarm while talks in Cairo continue, with the NCAG still awaiting entry into Gaza and the ISF limited to coordination structures rather than deployment inside the enclave.
