More than 75,000 killed in first 16 months of war in Gaza: Study

LONDON

Israel’s attacks on Gaza in the first 16 months following October 2023 killed more than 75,000 Palestinians, fully 25,000 more than announced at the time, according to media reports on Thursday, citing fresh research.

A study published in the Lancet medical journal on Wednesday found that reporting by the Gaza Health Ministry about the proportion of women, children, and the elderly people among those killed was accurate.

A total of 42,200 women, children, and the elderly were killed from Oct. 7, 2023 to Jan. 5, 2025, or 56% of violent deaths in Gaza.

The study also found that Israeli strikes against the Gaza Strip killed more than 75,000 Palestinians during the same period, 25,000 more than announced at the time

"The combined evidence suggests that, as of 5 January 2025, 3-4% of the population of the Gaza Strip had been killed violently and there have been a substantial number of non-violent deaths caused indirectly by the conflict," the authors of the study, including an economist, a demographer, an epidemiologist, and survey specialists, wrote in Lancet Global Health.

In January 2025, an independent study by researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine estimated 64,260 traumatic injury deaths in Israeli attacks on Gaza between Oct. 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024, substantially more than the 37,877 reported by Gaza’s Health Ministry.

According to the latest official data, Israel killed more than 71,000 people in Gaza over a period of two years, starting in October 2023, almost leveling the enclave to the ground.