The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza announced in early February 2026 that the cumulative death toll from Israel’s war on the enclave had reached 72,027 — with more than 171,651 people wounded since October 7, 2023. In the 24 hours surrounding the announcement, hospitals received two more bodies and treated 25 more injured people. Officials noted that additional victims remain trapped beneath rubble or lying in streets because ambulance and civil defense teams cannot reach them due to infrastructure destruction and fuel shortages.

The ceasefire that took effect in October 2025 has not stopped the killing. Since that date, at least 576 Palestinians have been killed and 1,543 wounded. Israeli forces have committed 1,520 documented ceasefire violations, according to Gaza authorities. The pattern — daily incidents of gunfire, shelling, demolitions — has continued with minimal international consequences.

The announced figures are almost certainly undercounts. Bodies remain buried under rubble throughout the territory. The Gaza Health Ministry can only count what hospitals receive. Independent researchers, including experts at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law, have estimated the actual death toll may be dramatically higher — with one analysis suggesting that a documented decline in Gaza’s total population since October 2023 implies more than 200,000 deaths when accounting for those never recovered.

Nearly half of essential medicines in Gaza’s health system have been depleted. Hospitals that survived the bombing operate under severe shortages of staff, supplies, and power. Patients requiring specialized treatment unavailable in Gaza — estimated at more than 18,500, including 4,000 children — face a Rafah crossing that processed fewer than half its authorized numbers in its first days of reoperation.

72,000 is the number that can be confirmed. The number that cannot be confirmed is larger. Both numbers are the result of choices made by identifiable governments, funded by identifiable taxpayers, armed by identifiable defense contractors, and shielded by identifiable diplomatic votes.