RAFAH, GAZA - MARCH 10: 11 years old Palestinian girl Razan Muneer Arafat is comforted by her uncle during crying jag in a makeshift tent in Rafah, Gaza on March 10, 2024. Razan lost her entire family in an Israeli attack and was pulled from rubble alive yet has her leg amputated. She is often seized by sudden crying jag due to her trauma. She stays with her uncle's family who took refuge at a school in Rafah, and dreams about having a prosthetic leg to continue her life on her own, without depending on a wheelchair. (Photo by Jehad Alshrafi/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Ramallah, December 3, 2025 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said that about 42,000 people in the Gaza Strip suffer from severe, life-changing injuries, the number of which has almost doubled in just one year.
The Statistics Authority indicated in a report issued today, Wednesday, on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, based on estimates from the World Health Organization, that 22,500 cases were recorded up to July 2024.
The most common injuries include: complex limb injuries, amputations, burns, spinal cord and brain injuries, and severe trauma resulting in permanent loss of motor or sensory functions .
The report also documented more than 5,000 amputations, estimated to be 75% of them in the lower limbs, in addition to thousands of serious spinal cord and brain injuries, burns and complex limb injuries .
The statistics office noted that children constitute a large percentage of these injuries, as more than 10,000 children suffer from serious injuries causing disability, while they constituted 51% of medical evacuations outside the Gaza Strip during the period from May 2024 to June 2025 .
He stressed that these figures reflect a sharp collapse in rehabilitation services, which have declined by 62% as a result of the destruction of facilities, the lack of equipment, and the martyrdom of more than 1,700 health personnel, including 42 specialists in physical and occupational therapy, amid a severe shortage of assistive devices such as wheelchairs, walkers, and prosthetic limbs .
A quarter of those seriously injured were children.
The statistics indicated that children are among the most affected groups; more than 10,000 children suffer from serious injuries causing disabilities, according to estimates by the World Health Organization as of September 24, 2025 .
Reports from Doctors Without Borders also showed that 70% of burn patients who underwent surgery were children, most of them under the age of five, reflecting the seriousness of the injuries they suffer in the absence of medical supplies and the lack of necessary assistive devices for recovery .
Medical evacuation reveals the depth of the crisis
The statement showed that the Ministry of Health’s data on medical evacuations from May 2024 to June 30, 2025, constitutes an additional indicator of the scale of the crisis, as 749 seriously injured people were evacuated for treatment outside the sector, 51% of whom were children .
The data showed that major limb injuries constitute the largest percentage of cases, in addition to a high percentage of amputations reaching 22%, and complex neurological and brain injuries for which there are currently no adequate rehabilitation services available within the sector .
Rehabilitation services collapse under the weight of the aggression
The statistics confirmed that rehabilitation services, which the World Health Organization considers an essential part of health care and necessary to prevent complications, are facing a major collapse in the Gaza Strip as a result of the destruction of health facilities, loss of personnel and disruption of supply chains .
He indicated that the level of rehabilitation services decreased by 62%, according to Ministry of Health reports up to November 27, 2025, due to widespread destruction, shortage of medical equipment, and the martyrdom of more than 1,700 health personnel, including 42 specialists in physical and occupational therapy .
The statement noted that current estimates are limited to injuries resulting from direct trauma and do not include the increased needs resulting from deteriorating health conditions due to the aggression, such as malnutrition, chronic diseases, displacement, and the absence of basic assistive devices, making the real burden on rehabilitation services much greater than the announced figures .
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E.R.
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