H.E. Dr. Awad, highlights the Forty - Nine  Annual Commemoration of Land Day in Statistical Figures

On The Occasion of the Forty-Nine  annual commemoration of Land Day, on 30/03/2025, H.E. Dr. Ola Awad, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics "PCBS", highlighted the Land Day in statistical figures, as follows:

The Palestinian people remember the Annual Commemoration of Land Day, in which six Palestinians were martyred by the Israeli occupation. It is the day in which the Israeli occupation laid hand over and confiscated 21 thousand dunums of land in Al-Jalil, Al-Muthalath, and Al-Naqab on March 30^th,1976. Accordingly, this day has become a commemoration to embody the belonging of the Palestinian people to their homeland and to commemorate those young martyrs.

The Israeli occupation controls more than 85% of the land

The Israeli occupation exploits more than 85% of the total land in historic Palestine, knowing that the Israelis, during the era of the British Mandate until 1947, exploited only 1,682 km², which constituted 6.2% of the land of historical Palestine.

The Israeli occupation is still imposing its control over more Palestinian lands in the West Bank under various pretexts and names, as the confiscated areas during 2024 more than (46,000) dunums. During 2024, 35 sequestration orders were issued regarding about 1,073 dunums, 5 expropriation orders for approximately 803 dunums, 9 orders declaring state land for approximately 24,597 dunums, in addition to 6 orders amending the boundaries of natural reserves through which 20,000 dunums were confiscated. All of such were part of the systematic and ongoing policy to control all Palestinian lands and deprive them from exploiting their natural resources within the annexation policy pursued by the Israeli occupation authorities in the West Bank.

More than 50,700 martyrs in Palestine since the Israeli occupation aggression on October 7^th, 2023

The number of martyrs in Palestine since the start of the Israeli occupation aggression on October 7^th, 2023 until March 27^th, 2024 reached more than 49,747 martyrs. Hence, more than 18,000 martyrs were children, and more than 12,3000 were women, in addition to about 11,000 missing persons, and about 120,000 other citizens were injured until March 24^th, 2025. Moreover, about 100,000 Palestinians have left Gaza Strip since the beginning of the brutal Israeli aggression, which has been ongoing since October 7^th, 2023.

 While in the West Bank, the Israeli occupation continued its aggression; 943 citizens were martyred, and 6,700 others were injured, as a result of the attacks by the Israeli occupation forces and settlers.

More than 70% of the housing units in Gaza Strip are uninhabitable

Since the Israeli occupation aggression on Gaza Strip on October 7^th, 2023, the Israeli occupation has destroyed more than 60,368 buildings, more than 110 thousand severely damaged buildings, while data show that the number of housing units that have been completely or partially damaged is estimated to be 330 thousand, constituting more than 70% of the total housing units in Gaza Strip.

In addition to the destruction of schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, churches, and government headquarters, as well as the destruction of thousands of economic establishments and most of the agricultural areas, making Gaza Strip an uninhabitable place to survive.

Numbers of damaged buildings in Gaza Strip since October 7^th, 2023, by type of building and type of damage

-: Nill

During 2024, the Israeli occupation demolished and destroyed completely or partially more than 903 buildings and facilities in the West Bank, including 242 buildings and facilities in Jerusalem Governorate (24 self-demolitions in Jerusalem, according to data from Jerusalem Governorate). In addition to issuing 939 demolition orders for Palestinian facilities under the pretext of lack of permits.

Since the beginning of 2025, the Israeli occupation authorities have been demolishing dozens of buildings in the Palestinian refugee camps and displacing tens of thousands of their residents as part of a policy of displacing the Palestinian people.

Self-Demolitions in Jerusalem Governorate    2009 - 2024

Gaza Strip population declined by 6% by the end of 2024

On October 7^th, 2023, the Israeli occupation raged a brutal aggression against Gaza Strip targeting all kinds of life there; humans, buildings and vital infrastructure. Cities became rubble and bombs branded the houses, walls, memory and pages of history with destruction, as entire neighborhoods became history, entire families were erased from the civil register. There are catastrophic human and material losses, yet this aggressive, brutal Israeli aggression against all of Gaza Strip continues. The West Bank wasn’t spared from this brutal Israeli aggression, where it suffered from the continuous Israeli arrests, raids, closures and movement constraints.

Based on the above data, the estimated population of the State of Palestine at the end of 2024 is 5.5 million Palestinians (3.4 million in the West Bank, while the estimated population of Gaza Strip for 2024 decreased by about 160 thousand Palestinians to reach 2.1 million (a decrease of 6% from the population estimates for Gaza Strip for 2023)).

Based on the revised population estimates prepared by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there are approximately 14.9 million Palestinians in the world at the end of 2024, of whom 7.6 million are outside historical Palestine, 5.5 million Palestinians are in the State of Palestine, and 1.80 million are in the 1948 territories.

Gaza Strip: More than 85% of water and sanitation facilities and assets have been completely or partially out of service

in Gaza Strip

As a result of the Israeli occupation aggression that has continued for nearly a year and three months, initial damage assessments up until the ceasefire date showed that more than 85% of water and sanitation facilities and assets have been completely or partially out of service and require rehabilitation exceeding one and a half billion dollars, only for the areas where the damage has been identified, including sewage treatment plants, desalination plants, pumping stations, wells, water tanks, main transmission lines, water and sanitation networks, rainwater drainage, water control laboratories, and more, so the per capita share of water in Gaza does not exceed half of the estimated minimum humanitarian requirement in emergency situations, which is 15 liters per person per day.

Due to the extensive damage incurred by the water and sanitation sector, water supply rates have declined to an average of 3-5 liters per person per day, varying significantly according to geographic location, water supply, damage to infrastructure, and ongoing displacement.

Israeli Settlements: Continuous Expansion

By the end of 2024, there were 551 Israeli occupation sites and military bases in the West Bank, including 151 settlements and 256 settlement outposts, of them 29 inhabited outposts that were considered as neighborhoods following established settlements, in addition to 144 classified as other sites (industrial, tourists, service areas and Israeli army bases). In.  2024,  there was a significant increase in the pace of construction and expansion of the Israeli settlements, as the occupation authorities approved several colonial master plans to build more than 13,000 housing units throughout the West Bank, including Jerusalem, by seizing approximately 11,888 dunums of Palestinian citizens’ land.

As for the number of settlers in the West Bank, it reached 770,420 settlers by the end of 2024. Accordingly, data show that around 43.7% of settlers live in Jerusalem Governorate, where their number reached about 336,304 settlers; out of whom 240,516 settlers live in East Jerusalem (J1) “includes those parts of Jerusalem which were annexed by the Israeli occupation in 1967” followed by Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate with 154,224 settlers, 107,068 settlers in Bethlehem Governorate, and 56,777 settlers in Salfit Governorate. While Tubas & the Northern Valleys Governorate has the lowest number of settlers that reach 3,004 settlers.

In regards to demographics, the proportion of the settlers to the Palestinian population in the West Bank is about 23.4 settlers per 100 Palestinians. It was the highest in Jerusalem Governorate, where there were 67.6 settlers per 100 Palestinians.

Sources:

1. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics 2024: Israeli settlements in the West Bank 2023. Ramallah - Palestine.

2. Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission 2025, the most prominent violations of the Israeli occupation State and colonizers in the occupied Palestinian territories, annual report, 2024. Ramallah - Palestine.

3. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories (OCHA), 2024.

4. Palestinian Ministry of Health - General Directorate of Emergency, 2025. Annual report on Israeli occupation attacks, 2024. Ramallah - Palestine.