Gaza death toll for first 16 months of war far higher than reported, says peer-reviewed study

[srobin21]

(The Israeli government and the US Administrations of both Biden and Trump have long claimed the casualty numbers issued by the Gaza Health Ministry could not be trusted because the ministry was “controlled” by Hamas. It turns out that the number of deaths provided by the Gaza authorities were substantially lower than the true number. 75,000 were killed, far higher than the 50,000 figure provided by the Health Ministry SR)

 

Gaza death toll for first 16 months of war far higher than reported, says peer-reviewed study

 

Lancet Global Health research suggests more than 75,000 killed in period, 25,000 more than announced at the time

 

By Jason Burke International security correspondent/The Guardian

 

Wed 18 Feb 2026 18.30

 

More than 75,000 people were killed in the first 16 months of the two-year war in Gaza, at least 25,000 more than the death toll announced by local authorities at the time, according to a study published on Wednesday in the Lancet Global Health medical journal.

 

The research also found that reporting by the Gaza health ministry about the proportion of women, children and elderly people among those killed was accurate.

 

A total of 42,200 women, children and elderly people died between 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel that prompted a devastating Israeli offensive into Gaza, and 5 January 2025, the study found. These deaths comprised 56% of violent deaths in Gaza.

 

“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, a team including an economist, demographer, epidemiologist and survey specialists, wrote in the Lancet Global Health.

 

The exact death toll in Gaza has been bitterly disputed, although last month a senior Israeli security officer told Israeli journalists that figures compiled by health authorities in Gaza were broadly accurate, marking a U-turn after years of official attacks on the data.

 

The officer was quoted as saying that about 70,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli attacks on the territory since October 2023, excluding those missing.

 

Full at:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/19/gaza-death-toll-higher-than-reported-lancet-study