Gaza devastation signals higher death toll and $71.4 billion rebuild need
Gaza’s rubble may be hiding more dead as U.N. teams say casualty counts are still shifting amid 57 million tonnes of debris.
Bodies remain buried under the ruins in Gaza as casualty counts keep being updated and access to devastated areas remains restricted.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a 3 June 2026 snapshot that casualty figures were still being updated and that some fatalities had only been fully identified as of 31 December 2025. UNRWA said that between 7 October 2023 and 6 May 2026, 72,619 Palestinians had been killed and 172,484 injured, and that 391 of its colleagues had been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.
The United Nations Development Programme said the war has severely affected all 2.1 million residents of Gaza, with more than 42,000 killed and more than 96,000 injured. It said three quarters of the population depend on food assistance, and described Palestinians living in squalid conditions amid the destruction of homes, places of worship, universities and hospitals. The agency is also preparing for debris removal and management.
A final Gaza Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment, issued by the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union on 20 April 2026, put recovery and reconstruction needs at $71.4 billion over the next decade. $26.3 billion will be needed in the first 18 months for essential services, critical infrastructure and economic recovery, alongside $35.2 billion in physical infrastructure damage and $22.7 billion in economic and social losses.
More than 371,888 housing units had been destroyed or damaged, more than half of hospitals were non-functional, nearly all schools were destroyed or damaged, and the economy had contracted by 84%. Around 1.9 million people had been displaced, often multiple times, and Gaza’s human development had been set back by 77 years.
UN News put Gaza at nearly 57 million tonnes of shattered concrete and other rubble in May 2026, and three quarters of the built environment had been destroyed. With access, insecurity and operational restrictions slowing humanitarian relief, U.N. human rights officials warned that the crisis was continuing at catastrophic levels, with possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and mass displacement.
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