2025 marked the deadliest year for Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, driven by Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip and escalating violations in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The bureau said mass killings, forced displacement, and the widespread destruction of basic infrastructure caused severe and long-term damage to population stability, economic and social conditions, and human rights across Palestinian territories.
In its end-of-year report, the bureau cited the Palestinian Ministry of Health, stating that 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.
By the end of December 2025, those killed included 18,592 children and about 12,400 women, while around 11,000 people remained missing and the number of wounded rose to 171,195.
Since the start of the war, about 100,000 Palestinians were forced to leave Gaza, while nearly two million people were displaced from their homes out of a pre-war population of approximately 2.2 million.
In the West Bank, intensified Israeli military operations and settler violence killed 1,102 Palestinians and wounded 9,034 others since October 2023.
The bureau said the scale of casualties and displacement significantly reshaped population figures. The Palestinian population stood at about 5.56 million by the end of 2025, including 3.43 million in the West Bank and 2.13 million in Gaza.
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Gaza’s population declined by about 254,000 people, a 10.6 percent decrease compared with pre-war estimates, marking an unprecedented demographic contraction caused by killings, displacement, and the collapse of living conditions.
The total number of Palestinians worldwide reached an estimated 15.49 million by the end of 2025. Of these, 5.56 million lived in Palestinian territories and 1.86 million lived inside Israel.
About 8.82 million Palestinians lived in the diaspora, including 6.82 million in Arab countries, reflecting the continued expansion of forced displacement rooted in political and historical factors.
Israel’s offensive since October 2023 caused a near-total collapse of Gaza’s health system, the bureau reported, citing World Health Organization data. About 94 percent of healthcare facilities and hospitals in Gaza were damaged or destroyed.
Only 19 of 36 hospitals remained partially operational, functioning at severely limited capacity due to shortages of medicine, medical supplies, fuel, and exhausted health workers. Hospitals had about 2,000 available beds to serve more than two million people, far below minimum health needs amid the surge in wounded and sick patients.
The bureau warned that 40 hospital beds faced immediate loss in facilities located in evacuation zones, while another 850 beds could be lost if security conditions around health centers continued to deteriorate.
Health Ministry data showed that about 60,000 pregnant women in Gaza faced severe health risks due to limited or unavailable maternal healthcare, while an additional 155,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women struggled to access prenatal and postnatal services.
More than 70 percent of Gaza’s population relied on contaminated or unsafe drinking water. By July 2025, 95 percent of households could not access safe drinking water.
About 96 percent of households experienced water insecurity, and 90 percent reported severe deterioration in water quality, contributing to the spread of intestinal diseases, particularly among children.
The education sector also suffered widespread destruction, especially in Gaza. More than 179 public schools were completely destroyed by early December 2025, while 218 others were damaged or targeted, including 118 public schools and 100 schools run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
In higher education, 63 university buildings in Gaza were completely destroyed, while eight universities in the West Bank were repeatedly raided and vandalised.
Casualties in the education sector were extensive. A total of 18,979 students were killed, including 18,863 in Gaza, along with 1,399 university students, 797 teachers and administrators, and 241 higher-education staff members.
Economic indicators for 2025 showed an unprecedented collapse of the Palestinian economy. Gross domestic product in Gaza contracted by 84 percent compared with 2023 amid near-total economic paralysis, while GDP in the West Bank fell by 13 percent, despite modest growth of 4.4 percent compared with 2024. Gaza’s economy continued to shrink by an additional 8.7 percent in 2025.
Unemployment reached record levels at 46 percent of the Palestinian labor force, with 28 percent in the West Bank and 78 percent in Gaza, among the highest rates globally. By the end of the year, about 650,000 Palestinians were unemployed, underscoring the depth of the economic and social crisis facing the Palestinian population.
