JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The population of Gaza has fallen 6% since the war with Israel began nearly 15 months ago as about 100,000 Palestinians left the enclave while more than 55,000 are presumed dead, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).

Around 45,500 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed since the war began but another 11,000 are missing, the bureau said, citing numbers from the Palestinian Health Ministry.

As such, the population of Gaza has declined by about 160,000 during the course of the war to 2.1 million, with more than a million or 47% of the total children under the age of 18, the PCBS said.

It added that Israel has “raged a brutal aggression against Gaza targeting all kinds of life there; humans, buildings and vital infrastructure… entire families were erased from the civil register. There are catastrophic human and material losses.”

Israel’s foreign ministry said the PCBS data was “fabricated, inflated, and manipulated in order to vilify Israel”.

Israel has faced accusations of genocide in Gaza because of the scale of death and destruction.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the United Nations’ highest legal body, ruled last January that Israel must prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians, while Pope Francis has suggested the global community should study whether Israel’s Gaza campaign constitutes genocide.

Israel has repeatedly rejected accusations of genocide, saying it abides by international law and has a right to defend itself after the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023 killed 1,200 Israelis and precipitated the current war.

The PCBS said some 22% of Gaza’s population currently faces catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, according to the criteria of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global monitor.

Included in that 22% are some 3,500 children at risk of death due to malnutrition and lack of food, the bureau said.

By Brian Thevenot

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) -A driver crashed his pickup truck into a crowd celebrating New Year’s Day in New Orleans’ French Quarter and opened fire, killing 10 people and injuring more than 35, in an early morning attack the FBI said was a potential act of terrorism.

The suspect, described by one city leader as being in “full military gear,” died after a shootout with police, law enforcement officials said.

“This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said at a televised press conference on Wednesday. “He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

The incident occurred at 3:15 a.m. (0915 GMT) at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Streets, a historic tourist destination in the city’s French Quarter known for attracting large crowds with its music and bars.

Kirkpatrick said the driver, who swerved around barricades, fired at police and struck two police officers from the vehicle after it crashed. The officers were in stable condition, she added.

“We know the perpetrator has been killed,” said New Orleans City Councilman Oliver Thomas. “As we search for a motive, remember there is no making sense of evil.”

Officials did not immediately name the suspect.

NBC News, citing three unnamed senior law enforcement sources, identified the suspect as Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42.

NOLA.com, citing one unidentified law enforcement source, reported that same suspect was carrying an ISIS flag in the truck. Reuters was unable to verify the reports and the U.S. Army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More than 300 officers were on duty at the time of the incident, police said. The city hosts the Sugar Bowl, a classic American college football game, each New Year’s Day, and will also be the site of the NFL Super Bowl on Feb. 9.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell called the incident a terrorist attack.

The FBI said in a statement that it was investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. Initially, Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, had said it was not a terrorist event.

Duncan said a suspected improvised explosive device was found but provided no further details.

“From what I understand, there is a potential that other suspects could be involved in this, and all hands on deck on determining who these individuals are and finding them,” New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno told 4WWLTV.

“Information that I received is that this individual was in full military gear, that he is apparently not local, and that he was prepared, and that he was very prepared to inflict horrific pain on the people on Bourbon Street,” Moreno said.

‘HORRIFIC ACT’

Verified video taken by an onlooker shows at least two twisted bodies in the street, with one of them lying in what appears to be a puddle of blood. A bystander is seen kneeling over one of the bodies as a group of uniformed military personnel in green uniforms and carrying firearms runs past. 

The injured were taken to at least five hospitals, according to NOLA Ready, the city’s emergency preparedness department.

A couple told CBS News that they heard crashing noises coming from down the street and then saw a white truck slam through a barricade “at a high rate of speed”.

Zion Parsons (NYSE:), 18, told NOLA.com that he and his two friends were leaving a Bourbon Street eatery when they heard a commotion and saw a white car barreling toward them.

He said he dodged the vehicle, but one of his friends was struck, with her leg “twisted and contorted above and around her back.”

“You can just look and see bodies, just bodies of people, just bleeding, broken bones,” he said.

Louisiana U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy said on CNN that despite the attack, law enforcement in New Orleans was ready for the Sugar Bowl on Wednesday night. “The Superdome has been locked down,” he said.

In response to vehicle attacks on pedestrian malls around the world, New Orleans was in the process of removing and replacing the steel barriers known as bollards that restrict vehicle traffic in the Bourbon Street pedestrian zone. The project’s status was unclear at the time of Wednesday’s attack.

Construction began in November 2024 and was scheduled to continue through February 2025, according to a city website.

Last month in Germany, a 50-year-old man was charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder after police said he plowed a car through crowds at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing five people and injuring scores.

President Joe Biden called the city’s mayor to offer full federal support. President-elect Donald Trump said his incoming administration would help New Orleans as it investigates and recovers from what he called an act of pure evil.