600 days of devastation: Israel’s war on Gaza leaves region in ruins

As the war on Gaza enters its 600th day, the toll on Palestinian lives, infrastructure, and basic survival is staggering

GAZA, Palestine (MNTV) –  As Wednesday marks 600 days since Israel launched its full-scale assault on Gaza, nearly every facet of civilian life in the region has collapsed under relentless bombardment.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed at least 54,056 Palestinians and wounded 123,129 since  October 2023, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

In just the past 24 hours, at least 81 Palestinians were killed and 163 injured, with 53 of those deaths reported in Gaza City and Jabalia.

Israeli forces continued to shell residential areas in Khan Yunis, Beit Lahia, and Al-Rimal. The shelling near Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza persisted, further straining Gaza’s already collapsed healthcare system.

Despite claims by Hamas of accepting a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, hopes for a truce remain dim.

A collapsing healthcare and food system

The humanitarian crisis continues to deepen.

The UN reports that over 80% of Gaza’s farmland has been damaged, raising the threat of famine.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that nearly 95% of agricultural land is unusable.

Only six of 22 UNRWA health facilities are operational. Medical supplies are critically low. Aid groups warn that health infrastructure destruction has made even routine care impossible.

Water availability has dropped to under 5 litres per person per day—far below emergency minimums—while sewage plants, hospitals, and desalination facilities remain offline due to fuel and power shortages.

The war’s scale of destruction is unprecedented. By January 2024, up to 62% of Gaza’s buildings had been damaged or destroyed—surpassing destruction levels seen in Syria’s Aleppo or Ukraine’s Mariupol.

The UN estimates 42 million tones of rubble now clutter Gaza.

At the current pace, it could take 80 years and over $80 billion to clear and rebuild.

The war has not only demolished homes and schools but entire cities.

Terms like “urbicide” and “domicide” have been invoked by legal experts, with one independent investigation by Forensic Architecture concluding that Israel’s campaign amounts to “a systematic effort to destroy life-sustaining infrastructure.”

Their 827-page report titled A Cartography of Genocide outlines targeted destruction as part of a deliberate military strategy.

Global outcry and legal scrutiny

Israel’s conduct in the war is under intense international legal scrutiny.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel also faces genocide allegations at the International Court of Justice.

According to UN data, about 70% of the Palestinian casualties have been women and children.

The Gaza Health Ministry reported over 4,000 children killed in just the first month of the war.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres lamented that Gaza had “become a graveyard for children.”

A study published in The Lancet suggests that the real death toll—accounting for those indirectly killed by starvation, lack of healthcare, and displacement—could exceed 186,000.

Meanwhile, international aid organisations have rejected a U.S.-Israeli humanitarian plan that seeks to distribute food through military-controlled hubs. Critics say the plan weaponises aid, violates neutrality, and will worsen mass displacement.

The war’s impact extends beyond humanitarian catastrophe—it has shaken diplomatic foundations worldwide.

At least nine countries have downgraded or severed diplomatic ties with Israel.

Public opinion, particularly in the Global South, has shifted sharply against Israel. The UN Security Council passed multiple resolutions calling for a ceasefire, including Resolution 2735 demanding the implementation of a three-phase peace plan.

In July 2024, a rare moment of Palestinian unity emerged. Rival factions Hamas and Fatah signed the Beijing Declaration, announcing a plan to form a unity government for Gaza. The deal, brokered by China, was welcomed by much of the international community.

Despite this, the war rages on.

UN reports from March and June 2025 accuse both Hamas and Israel of committing war crimes. Israel faces additional charges of using starvation as a weapon of war, systematically targeting medical personnel, and destroying Gaza’s healthcare system in what some legal experts call genocidal acts. These findings were based on over 7,000 pieces of evidence submitted to the ICC.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have also accused Israel of genocide, particularly through the intentional deprivation of essential resources like water and healthcare.

In December 2024, Amnesty stated that Israel was “intentionally destroying the reproductive capacity of Palestinians” by targeting women’s healthcare facilities.

The diplomatic stakes remain high. While ceasefire talks continue—mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the U.S.—violence on the ground persists.

Meanwhile, global pressure for a two-state solution has intensified. Saudi Arabia, along with 90 countries, launched a Global Alliance for the Implementation of a Palestinian State. Yet such diplomatic efforts remain at odds with the ongoing destruction in Gaza.

As the war enters its 600th day, the people of Gaza face a grim reality: no safe place, no functioning state, and little international protection. What remains is rubble, famine, and grief—while the international community continues to debate, negotiate, and watch.