Israel destroyed 611 mosques, eight cemeteries and three churches and caused the partial destruction of 214 mosques during its year-long aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip which began on 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments has said.

According to the report, Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque along with ministers of his far-right government six times, and threatened to establish a Jewish synagogue on the site. Ben-Gvir has relentlessly worked to intensify the Jewish presence at the mosque through government support and by giving it a legal cover, it added.
The report, which monitored the number of Jewish attacks on holy places in the occupied Palestinian territories including East Jerusalem in the past year, indicated that “extremist Jewish religious groups have attacked and spat on Christians and Christian pilgrims in the occupied city of Jerusalem, specifically around ​​the Church of the Prison of Christ, and restricted them during Christian holidays, and prevented them from reaching the Nativity Church in Bethlehem in southern occupied West Bank and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in East Jerusalem.”
On Saturday, Gaza’s Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs said that 79 per cent of the 1,245 mosques in Gaza were destroyed and 19 of 60 cemeteries were targeted, with bodies exhumed and desecrated, Anadolu reported.
The ministry also reported that 238 of its staff members were killed and 19 were detained by Israeli forces.
Israel has killed more than 41,800 Palestinians and wounded over 96,800 others during its ongoing war on Gaza since 7 October 2023, while 10,000 people are still missing and are presumed dead under the rubble.
Experts believe the  true number of those killed could be four times higher than the figures announced by the Ministry of Health.