70% of Gaza’s population forcibly displaced

About 70 per cent of Gaza’s population has been forcibly displaced due to Israeli bombing and raids in Gaza, the Gaza government's media office has said.

A statement said Israel has used about 30,000 tonnes of explosives in the bombing of the Gaza Strip and 50 per cent of the hospitals and 62 per cent of primary care health centers are out of service.

Half of the housing units in Gaza have been damaged by bombing and raids and 10 per cent have been destroyed. The office added that six children and five women are killed every hour on average.

The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, has said people across the Gaza Strip have been denied aid, killed and bombed out of their homes for the last month.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has begun a five-day visit to the Middle East to engage with government officials and civil society on human rights breaches taking place amid the war.

At least 163 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry has said, adding that 371 have been killed since the beginning of this year.