DayofPal– A new study published in The Lancet medical journal reveals that the death toll in Gaza during the first nine months of the Israeli genocide may have been undercounted by 41%, which is much higher than the officials toll.
Researchers from institutions such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Yale University used a statistical method known as capture-recapture analysis to estimate deaths from traumatic injuries resulted from constant Israeli attacks between October 2023 and June 2024.
While Gaza’s Health Ministry reported 37,877 deaths by June 30, the study estimated between 55,298 and 78,525 deaths, with the most likely figure being 64,260. This suggests significant underreporting, with 59.1% of casualties being women, children, and the elderly.
The toll equates to approximately 2.9% of Gaza’s pre-war population, or about one in 35 residents. The figures exclude deaths from lack of healthcare, food, or those still buried under rubble.
Since the onset of Israeli war on Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry reports that at least 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 109,378 injured. Initially, death counts relied on hospital records, but later included data from online surveys and reports from families.
The Lancet study highlights that Gaza’s healthcare system, once reliable in maintaining death records, has been severely compromised by ongoing Israeli military operations. Hospitals and other medical facilities have faced attacks, and digital communication disruptions have hindered record-keeping.
On Thursday, Gaza health officials warned of imminent hospital shutdown due to blockade on medical supplies and repeated Israeli airstrikes. Several hospitals have already shut down and others partially work.
Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud reported that in northern Gaza, many deaths go unrecorded, with victims buried in streets or under homes rubble due to the inability to transport them to hospitals. Medical facilities like Al-Aqsa Hospital are overwhelmed by injured civilians, facing acute shortages of basic medical supplies.
“The entire healthcare system in the northern part of the Strip is out of service, without any proper mechanism for recording the number of casualties in the areas It is increasingly difficult to keep track of mass killings during Israel’s relentless attacks,” Hani Mahmoud said.
Israeli forces have intensified attacks on densely populated areas, and medical teams report worsening conditions in besieged hospitals.
“Medical teams in Al-Awda Hospital continue to report that the Israeli army is going on with bulldozing all residential homes in the vicinity of the hospital amid more deterioration taking place among medical cases left there, and it could be a sign of further Israeli escalation taking place within the coming days,” he added.
Israel maintains that it seeks to minimize civilian casualties and accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, which Hamas denies.
The Washington Post analyzed the publicly released material by Israel in Al-Shifa hospital, along with satellite imagery and other publicly available material, and concluded that the rooms that were connected to an alleged tunnel network showed “no immediate evidence of military use by Hamas”, and that each of the buildings that the IDF spokesman.
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