News - Middle East: “I keep writing and deleting because I can’t find the words to describe the level of loss we Gazans are feeling right now,” Palestinian-British journalist Yara Eid wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“Can you imagine your whole world being wiped out? Everything. The level of destruction we’re seeing is beyond any words.”
Eid, 23, who was born and raised in Gaza, has lost at least 30 members of her immediate family, including 17 children, amid the Israeli-American genocidal war on the besieged territory since October 7.
The blockaded territory has seen indiscriminate bombings, targeting civilian facilities such as residences, hospitals, schools and universities, with most of the casualties being children and women.
“Our homes, our landmarks, our schools, our universities, our restaurants, literally everything… Israel’s intent was to always remove Gaza from the map. They destroyed our city intentionally. They bombed our ancient landmarks to remove any proof of Palestinian history,” she hastened to add.
Staggering death toll
According to Palestinian health authorities, the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 15,500, most of them children and women, with more than 40,000 others wounded.
Among those killed include nearly 6,400 children and 4,250 women, making up nearly 70 percent of the reported fatalities in the besieged territory since October 7.
More than 700 were killed on a single day after the expiration of the temporary truce this week.
Between October 7 and December 1, the fatality toll included at least 207 health workers and 112 United Nations staff, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate also reported the killing of at least 77 journalists in Gaza.
Eighteen-year-old Dima al-Lamdani who dreamed of being a successful businesswoman while growing up in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza lost 17 members of her family after they were forcibly evacuated to the south in the first week of the war.
“I am crumbled now. No dreams, no hopes, no plans. I can’t imagine my life without my mother and sister and father,” she was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “There is no place that is safe.”
The figures also suggest that hundreds of families were removed from Gaza’s population registry as all members of those families were killed together in deadly airstrikes.
On October 15, only a week into the war, a report from the Palestinian Ministry of Health stated that 47 families—consisting of over 500 civilians—were wiped from the civil registry.
The number rose to a staggering 825 families by October 28, according to reports by the Palestine News and Information Agency.
The figures have not been updated ever since, however, with the death toll now approaching 16,000, aid agencies say there are good reasons to believe that the number could be much higher.