As the genocidal war reshapes Gaza’s cities and communities, the territory’s statistical institutions are struggling to keep pace with the scale of destruction. Key offices once responsible for recording population trends and economic activity have been damaged or rendered inoperable, leaving experts warning that the ability to track even the most basic indicators is deteriorating rapidly. Officials say that at a moment when clear data is urgently needed to understand humanitarian and economic conditions, the very tools required to measure them have been severely weakened.

Specialists working in what remains of Gaza’s statistical sector note that traditional methods of data gathering have become nearly impossible. With neighbourhoods levelled, movement sharply restricted, and entire districts depopulated, teams have been forced to redesign their fieldwork, relying on improvised surveys and limited technology to restore some measure of continuity. They point out that the demographic landscape itself has been transformed: population losses estimated at roughly ten per cent, alongside a dramatic shrinkage of inhabited areas, demand an entirely new approach to monitoring social and economic life.

Despite these obstacles, plans are under way to launch a series of essential studies, including a full population count, labour and poverty assessments, and updated price surveys. These efforts aim to rebuild a reliable evidence base at a time when nearly every aspect of daily life has been disrupted. With as much as ninety per cent of residents uprooted at least once, and many repeatedly, the challenge is not only technical but human: how to reach people whose homes no longer exist, whose communities have been scattered, and whose living conditions shift from week to week.

Satellite analysis has shown the scale of destruction, with more than 190,000 buildings damaged or erased entirely. Such losses have reshaped urban space to the point where established statistical maps bear little resemblance to today’s reality. Analysts warn that without sustained effort to reconstruct the data infrastructure, it will become increasingly difficult to plan recovery, deliver services, or measure the long-term impact of the ongoing devastation.