Gaza death toll could be over 186,000: Report
LONDON
The British medical journal, The Lancet, has issued a warning that the true death toll of the Gaza conflict could be over 186,000, accounting for 8 percent of Gaza’s population.
The current official death toll stands at nearly 38,200, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
However, The Lancet’s recent report "Counting the Dead in Gaza: Difficult but Essential" suggested this figure is a significant underestimate.
The true number likely includes thousands still trapped under rubble and those who have succumbed to the secondary effects of the conflict, such as malnutrition, disease and lack of medical care, the report said.
The Lancet highlighted the difficulty in collecting accurate data due to the widespread destruction.
"The number of reported deaths is likely an underestimate. The non-governmental organization Airwars undertakes detailed assessments of incidents in the Gaza Strip and often finds that not all names of identifiable victims are included in the ministry’s list.”
“Furthermore, the U.N. estimates that, by Feb. 29, 35 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed, so the number of bodies still buried in the rubble is likely substantial, with estimates of more than 10,000," it said.
The report warned: "The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population’s inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organizations still active in the Gaza Strip."
The article emphasized that armed conflicts have indirect health effects beyond the direct harm caused by violence, adding that in recent conflicts, such indirect deaths have ranged from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths.
Applying a "conservative" estimate of four indirect deaths for every one direct death to the reported toll, Gaza could have suffered 186,000 or more deaths, the journal wrote.
