The file photo shows the destroyed Great Mosque of Gaza, the largest and oldest mosque in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza City, October 6 (RHC)-- The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in the Gaza Strip says the Israeli military has destroyed hundreds of mosques during the occupying regime’s year-long genocidal war against the besieged enclave.  The ministry announced in a statement on Saturday that Israeli airstrikes have destroyed 814 mosques, while another 148 have been severely damaged.

The ministry went on to say that the Israeli military has also destroyed three churches as well as 19 cemeteries in addition to mosques, adding that the estimated financial cost of the damage to the ministry's properties is $350 million.   Israeli troops have desecrated graves, adding that they have exhumed bodies, and committed brutal acts of violence against those who died, such as stealing their remains and mutilating them.

It also noted that 11 administrative and educational facilities under the ministry’s authority were destroyed, accounting for 79% of such structures in Gaza.  The ministry added that Israeli forces killed 238 of its employees and detained 19 others during the ground invasion of Gaza, calling on the international community to intervene immediately to halt the "ongoing war of extermination."

Israel launched its brutal war against the Gaza Strip after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched a surprise attack, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm, against the usurping entity on October 7th last year.  At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children. More than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced during the war as well.

The Israeli regime has not even spared places of worship in the coastal territory, indiscriminately and aimlessly bombing them.