An analysis of Gaza’s civil registry by Al Jazeera detailed Monday how thousands of US-backed Israeli military’s attacks on the exclave become stories not only of individual casualties but of “lineage, heritage, and identity disappearing in an instant” — with 2,700 families entirely wiped out since October 2023.
In 6,000 families, Hani Mahmoud reported from Gaza City, just “a single sole survivor” has been left behind.
Mahmoud reported on an attack that killed a recent high school graduate, whose family had lived in Khan Younis for generations, as well as his father, sister, and 22 members of his extended family.
“Sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins — so many branches gone,” said Mahmoud.
Ismail Al-Thwabta of the Gaza Government Media Office told Al Jazeera that the erasure of more than 2,700 families accounts for more than 8,000 deaths. More than 71,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began attacking the exclave in 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack, and hundreds have been killed since this past October when a “ceasefire” agreement was reached.
“Forty thousand families were targeted, which means more than four deaths in each family,” Al-Thwabta told Al Jazeera.
Lebanese commentator Sarah Abdallah said the death toll of entire families exemplifies “the intent of genocide.”
“This is not war,” said Abdallah. “This is annihilation.”
Irish Palestinian rights advocate Daniel Lambert of the Bohemian Football Club emphasized that thousands of families have been wiped out or left with just one surviving member with the enablement of the European Union, UK, and US.
Al Jazeera‘s report came days after Trump administration officials unveiled a “master plan” for a “New Gaza” — one including luxury apartments, data centers, and a “New Rafah” built over the rubble of the southern city that was razed by the Israel Defense Forces last year, forcing the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Palestinian political analyst Nour Odeh also explained on Al Jazeera Monday how the thousands of babies born in Gaza since October 2023 have not been added to the Population Registry, which is controlled by Israel.
“That leaves their legal status unresolved,” reported Drop Site News. “Without registration, it is unclear how these children would leave Gaza, under what documents, or whether Israel would allow them to return if they do.”
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