• A leading Western medical journal confirms the number of Palestinians killed is likely four times higher than official UN figures in a report widely ignored by mainstream media.
• The report also identifies the methods Israelis, and the West are using to stifle the Gaza Health Ministry’s ability to accurately record the number of people killed in what is already an impossible task.
The Lancet, the oldest medical journal in the world published its assessment of the genocide of Palestinians claiming the official death toll being incorrect is not “implausible”.
With the fatalities made up of mainly women and children already officially passing 38,000, The Lancet states that those figures are likely to be a gross underestimation of people killed since October 7th by Israeli forces in Gaza.
The highly esteemed and influential peer-reviewed scientific publication based in the West determined that the actual death toll records could be some four times higher than the Gaza Health Ministry’s reported figures.
Gazan Health Ministry Cut-Off
The Gaza Health Ministry is held in high esteem. The quality and accuracy of its figures were frequently cited by the UN and UNWRA for their accuracy as was also the case with the World Health Organisation. The IDF and even the Israeli government also cited the Ministry’s figures for accuracy but constantly criticised those same figures on mainstream media as being manipulated or inaccurate.
Now though, the Ministry can no longer go out and identify the bodies and record the deaths themselves, as much of the Gazan infrastructure that they rely on to collate such figures has largely been destroyed. It has become much harder for the Ministry to maintain their figures and to collect that data. They normally relied upon hospitals, as well as people who had brought in bodies of the dead. In response, the Ministry has been using sources beyond just those dying in its hospitals, such as reliable media and first responders, to compile its reports making the process more arduous. This has led to a decrease in the level of detailed data previously available and may now not be as reliable as hospital figures would have been.
Due to the increase in unidentified bodies, the Ministry had begun reporting this data separately. As of May 10, 2024, out of the 35,091 reported deaths, 30% were unidentified. Some Zionist officials and Western news agencies have used the increase in unidentified bodies to question the credibility of the reported death toll.
Non-governmental organisation Airwars reports that there are often individuals who have not been accounted for, including those that have been identified, and the UN estimates that over 1/3 of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed as of February 29, 2024, indicating that there are likely many buried in the rubble. Estimates suggest that over 10,000 bodies remain to be found. Airwars had also found that not all the names of those identified by the Gaza Health Ministry end up included in the Ministry’s list.
Israelis of course know this, which is why their attacks as of late have been targeting those sources to disrupt that chain of information, the consequence of this has made the Health Ministry unable to identify bodies since last May.
Shocking New Estimates of Gazans Killed
In another part of this Lancet report, it estimates the true death toll could be as high as 186,000 people.
Without a proper ceasefire, the ability to correctly record and confirm these numbers is unlikely to occur for some time. The report does point out where large concentrations of further unidentified bodies are likely to be found like the figure of 10,000 people potentially being buried in the rubble.
The information originally came from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) whose estimate was last recorded in May. The report also said it could take up to three years to find these people who are buried using the equipment people in Gaza have at hand at this moment in time effectively describing the level of decimation in Gaza.
If the attacks continue as they have, then so many more indirect deaths will occur, and that number will continue to grow in the coming months and years because of disease; interrupted medical supplies; life-changing injuries; interrupted food supplies; decimated agriculture; lack of water; lack of power; lack of shelter and other unknown factors that we do not see or hear even through independent channels.
Taking these factors into account with the Gaza Health Ministry figures, the Lancet report calculates the ratio of four indirect deaths to occur for every direct death in Gaza to arrive at their estimate. This ratio is based on a UN study from the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, titled the Global Burden of Armed Conflict. The calculated ratio totals up to 186,000 figures, which would account for roughly 8% of the nearly 2.4 million population of the Gaza Strip.
The Lancet also believes that 186,000 might be a conservative figure as an Action on Armed Violence Commission Study from February 2024 calculated that without a ceasefire, the death toll at that point of 28,000 people would rise to between 58,000 and 85000 dead owing to those indirect factors, and assuming either a health epidemic or escalation in violence (or both) were to happen by August 6, 2024.
Zionists Respond
In the US, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller was questioned on the Lancet Report over the findings of the report specifically the 186,000 deaths. Miller eventually conceded that the number of people killed was going to be greater than what was being officially recorded by the Gaza Health Ministry.
“The death toll could very well be more; we know there are potentially people who are under rubble who have not been counted…”
His response further incensed a journalist and people on social media as Miller was seen smirking throughout his response over the number of deaths in Gaza.
Recently re-elected MP Zara Sultana also tweeted on X her response to the Lancet Report saying.
“The Lancet, the most prestigious medical journal in the world conservatively estimates that the death toll in Gaza could be 186,000 or more than 8% of the population. I repeat my long-standing call for the UK government to immediately end all arms sales to Israel.”
Whilst standing as a Labour MP, Zara Sultana has been the most active and most vocal out of all her peers, very much the lone voice crying out for justice whilst having to sit amongst Zionists. It could even be assumed that Starmer had only kept her on as the ‘token voice’ for the Palestinians, to show that the Labour Party can represent everyone from every background which could not be further from the truth.
There has been much backlash by Zionists and Israeli media outlets who have again dismissed the truth that stares them in the face. They have not only called out Sultana for calling out the genocide but also The Lancet for spreading misinformation, whilst both have been labelled as antisemitic.
Study Credibility
The authors of the report made efforts to ensure its accuracy and objectivity. One author, Martin Mckee serves on the editorial board of the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research and the International Advisory Committee of the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research. He was the co-chair of the Institute’s 6th International Jerusalem Conference on Health Policy in 2016.
Between Mckee, the other authors Rasha Khatib and Salim Yusuf; and their study team Shofiqul Islam and Safa Noreen, this scientific publication quotes sources and evidence corroborated by reliable sources and people connected with them.
The news that another reputable institution and one from their ilk has produced evidence in the form of a peer-reviewed report, goes against the Zionist narrative and will only frustrate and place more pressure on the West to commit further mistakes.
It adds another layer to the body of evidence that is as clear as daylight for all to see, all except the mainstream media it seems, who have again deemed innocent people being killed for the benefit of advancing white colonialist culture is not newsworthy enough.
