US Health Workers Back From Gaza Estimate Death Toll Is at Least 4 Times Higher Than Reported
truthout.org
Meanwhile, Gaza officials reported this week that Israel has wiped out 902 entire families, at a minimum.

In a devastating letter sent to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris this week, 99 health workers who have volunteered in Gaza amid the genocide wrote that Israel has likely already killed over 118,908 Palestinians in Gaza. This is approximately 5.4 percent of Gaza’s population, meaning Israel has killed 1 of every 20 Palestinians in the Strip in less than a year, according to this estimate.

Not only is this figure horrific, it is also the “most conservative estimate” possible of the true death toll in Gaza, the health workers wrote in an appendix to the letter. The workers calculated this based on estimates from food insecurity researchers on the death toll caused by famine; rough estimates of deaths by disease; and other estimates of deaths that Gaza health officials are unable to count.

The workers, who spent a combined 254 weeks in Gaza, specifically emphasize the impact that Israel’s genocide has had on children. For instance, they point out that, according to officially reported figures, Israel has killed at least 2,100 babies and toddlers since October 7 — a toll that is higher than the combined Israeli death toll from the First Intifada, the Second Intifada and October 7 attack.

  • ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔English
    30•13 hours ago

    Why is this number so drastically higher than other numbers I’ve seen? I thought it was in the 40 thousands?

    (Not like that’s any better. Genocide is genocide. I’m just a bit perturbed by how different the number is then when I last heard.)

    UPDATE: Further along in the linked document it clarified…

    “In total it is likely that 62,413 people have died of starvation and its compilations in Gaza from October 7, 2023 to September 30, 2024. Most of these will have been young children.”

    That figure is an addition to the 42,000 that have died from the violence.

    Holy hell… 😭

    • @Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4•8 hours ago

      I and a few others have been trying to tell people that Gaza is already in the dying phase. That the UN and IPC have said Northern Gaza is in famine and Southern Gaza is “imminent”. But nobody has wanted to listen. Just recently we found out that USAID made the same assessment and assessed that Israel was restricting calories on purpose. But Blinken and Biden ignored that assessment to effectively clear Israel for military aid.

      And this isn’t done yet. When they dig that rubble out they’re going to find more bodies. That’s part of why Israel wants to officially occupy Gaza again. If we ever get a real number that might actually make them a parish state.

    • @small44@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12•13 hours ago

      The collapse of help system. I also think indirect deaths from diseases and famine are not counted by the health ministry

  • @talEnglish
    -1•8 hours ago

    It looks like Hamas has 40k members, so I guess maybe at least two non-Hamas dead for each Hamas dead.

  • lurch (he/him)English
    0•13 hours ago

    Anyone knows how many Palestinians are left, what their birth rate is and how many decades it will take Israel to complete the genocide at this rate?

    • @unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      11•12 hours ago

      It was in the low millions (2.5 iirc). I dont think the birthrate is existent. Women who give birth will probably die of infection due to the lack of non bombed hospitals and non assassinated doctors. Israel has recently further tightened the restrictions on aid deliveries. Once the starvation and lack of water reaches a critical point, the population could actually start collapsing very quickly.

    • @Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      7•12 hours ago

      Are you asking why birth rates increase when material conditions worsen?

      Pre-war Gaza had a number of salient features that set it apart from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. Among them were: a high population density, with an estimated 2.3 million people squeezed into 365 square kilometers (141 square miles); a large number of UN-registered refugees, amounting to 70% of Gazans, the majority of whom lived in eight overcrowded and squalid UN-serviced refugee camps; a population that was increasing annually by 2.8% — among the highest growth rates in the world, with nearly 50% under the age of 18; and a fast-growing labor force, with new entrants to the job market joining long unemployment lines in a small and virtually broken economy.

      High rates of joblessness, especially among youth (60%) and women (64%), widespread poverty (64%), and severe food insecurity (41%) produced extremely dire living conditions, rendering 80% of Gaza residents dependent on humanitarian aid for survival. Dilapidated infrastructure, environmental degradation, institutional decay, and chronic shortages in electricity and potable water added further strains. The severity of conditions in Gaza twice led the UN, in 2012 and again in 2015, to warn that if nothing was done to reverse course, the whole place would become unlivable by the year 2020.

      • lurch (he/him)English
        2•11 hours ago

        Are you asking why birth rates increase when material conditions worsen?

        No, I was asking the questions I asked.

        The info about the pre-war birth rate is a bit helpful, though.

        I’m wondering how long it will take Israel to eradicate all Palestinians, if they keep going at the current speed, if the world fails to stop them for decades in a worst case scenario. But don’t waste your time on my grim thoughts.