Palestinian officials say 2025 was the deadliest and most devastating year on record for Palestinians, citing Israel’s war in Gaza and intensified attacks in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
In an end-of-year report, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics 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.
