Takeaways from AP's report on the destruction in Gaza a year into the war

Israel's yearlong offensive against Hamas, launched in response to the militant group's Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and caused staggering destruction across the Gaza Strip that could take decades to rebuild.

Hundreds of thousands of people are crammed into squalid tent camps with no homes to return to, even if there is a cease-fire. The mountains of rubble alone, laced with human remains, unexploded ordnance and other hazardous materials, could take years to remove.

Israel blames the destruction on Hamas. Its Oct. 7 attack on Israel — in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage — ignited the war. Hamas embedded much of its military infrastructure, including hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, in densely populated areas where some of the heaviest battles were fought.

The fighting left roughly a quarter of all structures in Gaza destroyed or severely damaged, according to a U.N. assessment in September based on satellite footage. It said around 66% of structures, including more than 227,000 housing units, had sustained at least some damage.

Here's a look at the main takeaways from an AP interactive report looking at the scope of the devastation.

Israel's offensive has killed over 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded more than 96,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. It does not say how many were fighters, but says women and children make up more than half of those killed.

It also says the toll may be higher as thousands of bodies remain buried under rubble or in areas that are inaccessible to medical teams.

Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, but has not provided evidence. Over 720 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Oct. 7, including in the attack itself, the war in Gaza and the conflict with Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group.

The U.N. estimates that around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times. Israeli evacuation orders now cover around 90% of the territory.

Schools have been turned into shelters, and hundreds of thousands have crammed into sprawling tent camps along the coast.

The Shelter Cluster, an international coalition of aid providers led by the Norwegian Refugee Council, says it has struggled to bring in basic supplies because of Israeli restrictions, the ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza.

It estimates that some 900.000 people are in need of tents and bedding.

The war has gutted Gaza's infrastructure, which was already in bad shape after a 16-year blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt when Hamas seized power in 2007.

The U.N. says the war has damaged or destroyed over 92% of Gaza's main roads and more than 84% of its health facilities.

It estimates nearly 70% of Gaza’s water and sanitation plants have been destroyed or damaged. That includes all five of the territory’s wastewater treatment facilities, plus desalination plants, sewage pumping stations, wells and reservoirs.

The breakdown of water infrastructure has flooded the streets with sewage in many areas, contributing to the spread of disease among a population weakened by widespread hunger.

Where houses, shops and office buildings once stood, there are now giant drifts of rubble laced with human remains, hazardous substances and unexploded munitions.

The U.N. estimates the war has left some 40 million tons of debris and rubble in Gaza, enough to fill New York’s Central Park to a depth of eight meters (about 25 feet). It could take up to 15 years and nearly $650 million to clear it all away, it said.

The World Bank estimated $18.5 billion in damage in Gaza from just the first three months of the war, before several major Israeli operations. That figure is nearly equivalent to the combined economic output of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022.

Wealthy Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have said they are only willing to contribute to Gaza’s reconstruction as part of a postwar settlement that creates a path to a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled that out, saying he won’t allow Hamas or even the Western-backed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza. He has said Israel will maintain open-ended security control and delegate civilian affairs to local Palestinians. But none are known to have volunteered, and Hamas has threatened to kill anyone who aids the occupation.

Israel allowed construction materials in before the war, but the system was subject to heavy restrictions and delays.

The Shelter Cluster estimates that it would take 40 years to rebuild all of Gaza’s destroyed homes under that system.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Palestinians walk through the destruction left by the Israeli air and ground offensive on Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians walk through the destruction left by the Israeli air and ground offensive on Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Displaced Palestinians line up to collect water at a makeshift tent camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

FILE - Palestinians pray in front of a mosque destroyed by the Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Friday, March 8, 2024, ahead of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File)

FILE - Palestinians walk through the destruction in the wake of an Israeli air and ground offensive in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File)

FILE - Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike on residential buildings and a mosque in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File)

FILE - Palestinians inspect the rubble of buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike at Al Shati Refugee Camp Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa, File)

FILE - Palestinians look at the destruction after an Israeli strike on residential buildings and a mosque in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File)

FILE - Smoke and explosions rise inside the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Sunday, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

FILE - Palestinians salvage what they could from the destruction left by Israeli troops in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File)

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900.

For some rabbis, the intersection of the two religious holidays provides an auspicious occasion for interfaith engagement.

“This can be a profound opportunity for learning and collaboration and togetherness,” said Rabbi Josh Stanton, a vice president of the Jewish Federations of North America. He oversees interfaith initiatives involving the 146 local and regional Jewish federations that his organization represents.

“The goal is not proselytizing; it's learning deeply from each other,” he said. “It’s others seeing you as you see yourself.”

One example of togetherness: a Chicanukah party hosted Thursday evening by several Jewish organizations in Houston, bringing together members of the city’s Latino and Jewish communities for a “cross cultural holiday celebration." The venue: Houston’s Holocaust museum.

The food on offer was a blend of the two cultures — for example a latke bar featuring guacamole, chili con queso and pico de gallo, as well as applesauce and sour cream. The doughnut-like pastries were sufganiyot — a Hanukkah specialty — and buñuelos, And the mariachi band took a crack at playing the Jewish folk song “Hava Nagila.”

“What really brings us together is our shared values — our faith, our families, our heritage,” said Erica Winsor, public affairs officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston.

Rabbi Peter Tarlow, executive director of the Houston-based Center for Latino-Jewish Relations, said the first Chicanukah event 12 years ago drew 20 people, while this year the crowd numbered about 300, and could have been larger had not attendance been capped. He said the party-goers were a roughly even mix of Latinos — some of them Jews with Latin American origins — and “Anglo” Jews.

“There’s too much hate, too much separation against both Jews and Latinos,” Tarlow said. “This is a way we can come together and show we support each other.”

While Hanukkah is intended as an upbeat, celebratory holiday, rabbis note that it’s taking place this year amid continuing conflicts involving Israeli forces in the Middle East, and apprehension over widespread incidents of antisemitism.

Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, acknowledged that many Jews may be feeling anxious heading into Hanukkah this year. But he voiced confidence that most would maintain the key tradition: the lighting of candles on menorah candelabras and displaying where they’re visible through household windows and in public spaces.

“The posture of our community — without stridency, just with determination — is that the menorah should be in our windows, in a place where the public sees it,” Hauer said.

“It is less for us, the Jewish community, than for the world,” he added. “We have to share that light. Putting the menorah in the window is our expression of working to be a light among the nations.”

Hauer concurred with Stanton that this year’s overlap of Hanukkah and Christmas is “an exceptional opportunity to see and experience the diversity of America and the diversity of its communities of faith.”

Rabbi Motti Seligson, public relations director for the Hasidic movement Chabad-Lubavitch, noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of a milestone in the public lightings of menorahs. It was on Dec. 8, 1974 — as part of an initiative launched by the Lubavitcher leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson — that a menorah was lit outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where the Liberty Bell was housed at the time.

"Hanukkah is a celebration of religious liberty, so that it’s not taken for granted,” Seligson said. “One of the ways of doing that is by celebrating it publicly.”

He said Chabad was organizing about 15,000 public menorah lightings this year through its numerous branches around the world.

“There certainly is some apprehension,” Seligson said, referring to concerns about antisemitism and political friction. “Some people question whether Jews will be celebrating as openly as in the past.”

“What I’m hearing is there’s no way that we can’t,” he added. “The only way through these difficult times is by standing stronger and prouder and shining brighter than ever.”

Stanton concurred.

“Through our history, we’ve been through moments that are easy and moments that are hard,” he said. “Safety for us does not come from hiding. It comes from reaching out.”

Why is Hanukkah so late this year? The simple answer is that the Jewish calendar is based on lunar cycles, and is not in sync with the Gregorian calendar which sets Christmas on Dec. 25. Hanukkah always begins on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev, a date which occurs between late November and late December on the Gregorian calendar.

The last time Hanukkah began on Christmas Day was in 2005. But the term “Chrismukkah” — signifying the overlap of the two holidays — had become a popular term before then. The term gained extra currency in 2003, when the character Seth Cohen on the TV drama “The O.C.” embraced the fusion holiday as a tribute to his Jewish father and Protestant mother.

This season, the Hallmark Channel introduced a new Christmas movie called “Leah’s Perfect Gift,” depicting a young Jewish woman who had admired Christmas from a distance, and gets a chance to experience it up close when her boyfriend invites her to spend the holidays with his family. Spoiler alert: All does not go smoothly.

Despite such storylines suggesting a fascination with Christmas among some Jews, Stanton says research by the Jewish Federations reveals a surge in Jews seeking deeper connections to their own traditions and community, as well as a surge in Jews volunteering for charitable activities during the holidays.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Guests listen to speakers during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Benjamin Warren hugs Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo after she spoke during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Attendees listen to speakers during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Dr. Annette Goldberg dances with Sheldon Weisfeld during a Chicanukah mariachi performance at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Altagracia Vazquez performs with her daughter Ariana, 6, and Mariachi Palmeros during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Guests add guacamole and pico de gallo to latkes during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Guests enjoy a performance by Mariachi Palmeros during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Jacob Monty joins Rabbi Peter Tarlow at the podium during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Rabbi Peter Tarlow lights a candle on a menorah during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo speaks during a Chicanukah event at Holocaust Museum Houston on Thursday, December 19, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)