Gaza War Death Toll Underreported by 41%, New Study Reveals
A new study published in The Lancet suggests that the official Palestinian tally of deaths in the Israel-Hamas war undercounted casualties by 41% during the first nine months of the conflict. The peer-reviewed research was conducted by academics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Yale University, and other institutions.
Using a method called capture-recapture analysis, researchers estimated 64,260 deaths from traumatic injuries between October 2023 and June 2024, significantly exceeding the 46,000 deaths reported by the Gaza Health Ministry. Of those killed, 59.1% were women, children, and the elderly. The study did not provide estimates for Palestinian combatants.
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The researchers highlighted that Gaza’s healthcare system, already strained, collapsed under the pressure of Israeli airstrikes and ground campaigns, with disruptions to digital communications and hospital functions further compromising death record accuracy.
Israel has stated that it makes efforts to avoid civilian casualties and accuses Hamas of using civilian areas and hospitals as operational cover, which Hamas denies.
The study used data from multiple sources, including hospital records, an online survey distributed by the Gaza Health Ministry, and obituaries posted on social media. This methodology has been previously employed in conflict zones like Kosovo and Sudan to account for unrecorded deaths.
