Official Palestinian death tolls from Israel’s invasion of Gaza are underestimated by about 41 per cent due to the collapse of the health system in the Strip as of mid-2024, said the authors of a new study published in the leading medical journal The Lancet.
A team of scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions carried out the statistical analysis using the capture-recapture method. They estimated that 64,260 people died from injuries between October 2023 and the end of June 2024, 41% higher than official figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The study found that 59.1% of those who died were women, children and people over 65 years old. Lead author Zeina Jamaluddine said:
“Our research reveals a stark reality: the true scale of traumatic injury deaths in Gaza is higher than reported.”Â
The Palestinian health ministry’s death accounting system, which previously worked efficiently, has been severely damaged by Israel’s military campaign.
Israeli strikes on hospitals and other medical facilities, as well as communications outages, have virtually paralysed the agency. According to unofficial reports, many of the dead still remain under the rubble of destroyed buildings and are not included in official statistics.
At least 70 Palestinians were killed in Thursday’s relentless Israeli attacks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The total death toll has reached 46,006 since October 2023. The ministry also said 109,378 people have been injured during the military operation.
