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A general of heavily damaged buildings and a large number of makeshift tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, Gaza, on July 9, 2025. [Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini – Anadolu Agency]
Gaza’s population has dropped by 10% as Israel continued its destructive war on the Palestinian enclave, official figures showed on Thursday, Anadolu reports.
“Palestine, specifically the Gaza Strip, is suffering an unprecedented humanitarian and demographic catastrophe due to the ongoing Israeli aggression since October 2023,” the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.
The bureau said that more than 57,000 Palestinians, including 18,000 children and 12,000 women, were killed in Israeli attacks, which constitutes 2.4% of Gaza’s total population.
Figures released by the bureau also showed that nearly 100,000 Palestinians have left the enclave since the start of the Israeli war.
Before the outbreak of the Israeli war, Gaza’s population stood at 2,226,544 in 2023, as official figures showed.
“Population estimates indicate that the population has declined to approximately 2,129,724, representing a 6% decrease compared to the projection of mid-2024 estimates,” it said.
“Furthermore, the population dropped to 2,114,301, a decrease of 10% from what was estimated for mid-2025.”
The bureau warned of “a fundamental shift” and distortion in the age and population pyramid “due to the deliberate targeting of younger age groups by the Israeli army, particularly children and youth.”
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
A leader of the Ansar Allah movement criticized the US for providing weapons to Israel’s genocidal war and held airdropping aid to Gaza as insulting to Palestinians
Sayyed Abdulmalik al-Houthi, leader of Yemen’s Ansar Allah, said on Thursday, March 14 that his country’s armed forces will expand their attacks against ships moving to Israel from the Red Sea region to the whole of Indian ocean.
Stating that attacks on Israeli ships in the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb will continue until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, al-Houthi declared that “we [now] aim to prevent ships associated with the Israeli enemy from crossing [Indian] Ocean towards South Africa and the Cape of the Good Hope” as well.
He warned that international shipping companies should take Ansar Allah’s declaration seriously and avoid any links with Israel as “any ship linked to Israel is vulnerable to Yemeni missiles.”
Ansar Allah and the Yemeni Armed Forces have been carrying out attacks against the ships associated with Israel in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November last year, in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza who have been facing devastating Israeli aggression since October 7 which has killed close to 32,000 of them and injured over 72,000.
Ansar Allah has been a part of the regional Axis of Resistance against imperialist interventions and colonialism along with Iraqi resistance forces and Hezbollah in Lebanon. They have targeted Israel and US installations in the region in solidarity with Palestinians.
Al-Houthi asserted that the attacks carried out by the US and the UK on Yemen will not be able to deter the country from supporting Gaza. Those attacks have “one outcome, which is the widening of the conflict and war at the regional level” he said.
The US and the UK launched aerial strikes inside Yemen in December despite concerns that any such move will escalate the war in Gaza to the regional level. Since then, they have carried out over hundred of such attacks.
On Thursday, the US and the UK carried out a total of 11 airstrikes. According to Al-Mayadeen, Thursday’s attacks brings the total number of such airstrikes in Yemen to over 35 in just five days since the start of the month of Ramadan. Most of the airstrikes targeted the port city of Hodeidah. However, provinces such as Saada and Sanaa were also been targeted.
US and Israel linked ships and warships targeted
Al-Houthi claimed that at least 34 Yemenis have been killed in operations carried out in support of Gaza since November. He however asserted that Yemen will not be deterred and will continue to act in solidarity with Palestine.
He also stated that Yemeni Armed Forces have carried out at least 12 operations against ships and warships in the Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and Gulf of Aden region by launching 58 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones in the past week. He added that the total number of ships and warships hit by Yemen since November has reached 73.
On Thursday, the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported that it received reports of two more ships being attacked off the coast of Hodeidah with missiles. At least one of those two ships was damaged in the attack.
Al-Houthi also praised popular support for the Palestinian cause in Yemen and the large participation in the weekly million-person marches in solidarity with Palestinians. He appealed to the Yemeni people to participate in the next “million Yemeni march” organized across the country on Friday.
Al-Houthi criticized the role of most of the regional countries in the Israeli war in Gaza claiming apart from Iran, most others “did not take any serious practical stand” in support of Palestinian people.
Al-Houthi claimed that “the Israeli occupation is carrying out a crime of the century, with American participation and contribution” from other western countries. He termed the US airdropping of aid into Gaza “an insult” to Palestinians underlining how it has bypassed the official UN channels of aid.
