Gaza deaths in war's first 15 months higher than reported, study says

GAZA, Feb 20 (Agencies): More than 75,000 Palestinians were killed in the first 15 months of Israel's military assault in Gaza, a figure far higher than the 49,000 deaths local health officials announced at the time, says a new study by The Lancet Global Health medical journal.
The peer-reviewed study, published on Wednesday, found that women, children and the elderly comprised some 56.2 percent of violent deaths in Gaza during that period, a composition that it said roughly aligned with reporting by Gaza's health ministry.
The field work was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, run by Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, who has carried out public opinion polling in the West Bank and Gaza for decades. The lead author is Michael Spagat, a professor at Royal Holloway, University of London.
The study is the first independent population survey of mortality in the Gaza Strip, said its authors, whose research involved surveying 2,000 Palestinian households over seven days starting on December 30, 2024.
"The combined evidence suggests that, as of Jan 5, 2025, 3-4 percent 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 wrote.
The Gaza death toll has been bitterly disputed since Israel's assault began after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel. Gaza health authorities, whose figures the UN has long deemed reliable, report more than 72,000 killed and estimate thousands more remain uncounted beneath destroyed buildings 28 months later.
Israel has questioned those tallies, citing Hamas control of the ministry, though a senior military officer told Israeli media last month its figures were broadly accurate - a view the army later said did not reflect official data.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Muslims gathered under heavy security at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem for the first Friday prayers of the holy month of Ramadan, among them Palestinians who crossed into Israel from the West Bank.
The prayers at Al-Aqsa took place for the first time since a shaky ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect in October. It was the first opportunity many had to leave the West Bank and pray at the site in Jerusalem's Old City since Ramadan last year.
But Israel restricted the number of Palestinians allowed to enter Israel from the West Bank to 10,000 on Friday, and only allowed men over 55 and women over 50 as well as children up to 12.