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Death toll in Gaza might be 40% higher than officially stated — UNRWA

"The study also confirms that the majority of those killed are women, children and the elderly," Philippe Lazzarini noted

UNITED NATIONS, January 28. /TASS/. The number of casualties in the Gaza Strip is likely to exceed the death toll cited by the enclave’s official data by more than 40%, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), said.

"A peer-reviewed study of death by traumatic injury in Gaza reveals that the mortality figure provided by the Ministry of Health is a minimum estimate. 46,000 deaths is likely an undercount by more than 40%," he said at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the situation around UNRWA.

"The study also confirms that the majority of those killed are women, children and the elderly," he noted.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave.

Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said late on January 15 that thanks to the mediatory efforts of Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, Israel and Hamas had reached an agreement on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of hostages held in the enclave. During the first 42-day phase of the deal, Hamas will release 33 hostages in exchange for Israel freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The agreement came into effect on January 19. On the same day, three Israeli women were returned home. Israel, in turn, released 90 Palestinian women and teenagers from its prisons early on January 20.

On January 25, four more Israeli women were released from captivity in the Gaza Strip and Israel freed 200 Palestinian prisoners. As many as 114 of them arrived in the West Bank, 16 returned to Gaza, and the rest 70 were deported to Egypt.

According to the latest bulletin of Gaza’s health ministry, the overall death toll since October 2023 has climbed to 47,354, with 111,563 people being injured.