As of 2026. OCHA's reporting through 2026 continues to describe Gaza's population as about 2.1 million; the figure is uncertain after the war's mortality and departures and PCBS has not published a post-war enumeration.
After Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007 Israel designated the territory a "hostile entity" and intensified pre-existing restrictions, closing most crossings to people and goods, imposing a naval blockade and a land buffer zone, and permitting exit through Erez only for defined categories such as medical patients, traders and staff of international organisations; Egypt has separately opened and closed the Rafah crossing according to its own policy. OCHA has recorded that the population grew by more than half during the closure while permitted exits fell by orders of magnitude, and has said the measures raise concerns of collective punishment under international humanitarian and human rights law, calling for the closure to be lifted in line with Security Council resolution 1860. Israel states that the restrictions are a lawful response to armed attacks and to arms smuggling by an organisation it and several states designate as terrorist, and that it permits humanitarian goods and medical exits. Following the October 2023 attacks and the war that followed, movement was almost entirely halted and both crossings were closed for extended periods. Under the ceasefire that began in October 2025 the Rafah crossing reopened on 2 February 2026 on a limited basis, supervised by an EU border assistance mission with Egyptian and Israeli vetting, initially at about 50 people a day in each direction for medical evacuation and return, against a WHO estimate of more than 20,000 patients needing treatment abroad; goods were not admitted through it and reconstruction materials remained restricted.
Israel controlling Gaza's land, sea and air access, with Egypt controlling the Rafah crossing, following the Hamas takeover of the territory in June 2007
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimated the Gaza Strip at about 2.1 million in mid-2023, roughly 1.6 million of them registered refugees; at the imposition of the closure in June 2007 the population was about 1.4 million. The closure regime applies to the entire population, which is why the confined figure and the population figure are the same number.
Both fields are null because no body has produced an aggregate death toll attributable to the closure regime itself; its documented harm is deprivation rather than killing. Discrete enforcement deaths are counted separately — ten passengers were killed in the May 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla raid — and WHO and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have recorded deaths of patients who died awaiting exit permits, but these have never been aggregated into a toll. Deaths since October 2023 are counted under the Gaza war entry.
The ICRC and major human rights organisations have characterised the closure as collective punishment under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared famine in Gaza Governorate from 22 August to 19 December 2025.
Palestine