Israel is systematically killing Gazans in ways that don’t add to the conflict’s Death Toll
The Gazan Health Ministry’s Death Toll counts only deaths directly attributable to the IDF’s military actions. However, in addition to its widespread military bombardment Israel has been systematically killing Gazans since Oct. 7th in ways that do not contribute to the conflict’s official casualty figure.
Estimates of casualties in Gaza vary drastically, with many reports pointing to the widespread destruction of the health facilities charged with processing and compiling death records, as reason to believe the current count can not possibly be reliable. The WHO claims 13 of 36 hospitals were partially operational on May 22nd 2024, but on the same day the Palestinian Health Minister Majed Abu Ramadan told Reuters he believed it to be only 8 of 36.
Gaza Projections Report 3, Oct 22nd 2024:
The ongoing military operation has severely
damaged or destroyed much of Gaza’s food system,
including cropland area , the fishing fleet, flour mills
and bakeries], supply chains and food
markets, with the consumer price index for food
rising from 210 pre-war to 600 by March 2024”
Journalists and aid organizations in Gaza, along with the UN, Doctors Without Borders, and many others have been frantically blowing the whistle on the deadly effects of Israel’s latest siege on the Gaza Strip. On May 12th 2025 the World Health Organization announced: “Three quarters of Gaza’s population are at ‘Emergency’ or ‘Catastrophic’ food deprivation, the worst two levels of IPC’s five level scale of food insecurity and nutritional deprivation.”
According to the UN, from March 2nd 2025 to May 13th 2025 the Gazan MOH recorded 57 child deaths due to malnutrition. On May 22nd Majed Abu Ramadan was quoted in the article with Reuters mentioned above as saying: “In the last couple of days we lost 29 children,” Categorizing them “starvation-related deaths” and later clarifying they consisted of the elderly as well.
Healthcare and food are not the only systems under attack. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that after Oct. 9th 2023 Gaza’s access to water, both desalinated and external, was cut by 95%. They also state that “Constantly moving populations complicate delivery of water supplies, and the crowding in southern Gaza has led to the spread of waterborne illness and disease”. These are specific and common methods of Israeli collective punishment. In December of 2024 the WHO published a report showing the same tactics in Lebanon, finding “Water and sanitation systems have been severely disrupted, compounding the risk of disease outbreaks.” by Israeli strikes post-Oct 7th.
In October of 2024 “Officials said that more than 85 per cent of water and sewage facilities [in the strip] are either fully or partially non-operational due to extensive damage to critical infrastructure.” per Middle East Monitor.
Australian Broadcast Co. Oct. 2024
Dalloul al-Neder’s family home in Jabalia was struck in December.
“The bodies of his mother, brother, and niece were found and their deaths have been recorded.
But his brother’s pregnant wife was believed to have been trapped under
the rubble and was not counted,
neither was his other sister-in-law who was killed months later.”
Hala Khreis, a loving 57 year old mother, and grandmother was fleeing her family’s home in Gaza City with her 4 year old grandson Tayem. They held hands, and Tayem was waving a white flag when an IDF officer shot Hala in the chest, killing her. Due to the barbarity of the execution, and the fact that it was video taped, the killing gained attention and sparked outrage. Despite all of this, almost 18 months later, Hala Khries still has not been added to the Health Ministry’s Death Toll. Highlighting just how impossible it can be for Palestinians to verify their family members’ death with the proper authority, even when the entire world witnessed their murder.
As life-shattering images and accounts continue to come from Gaza in the midst of Israels genocide, equating the Ministry of Health’s Death Toll with the extent of those killed at the hands of Israel in Gaza is, verifiably, a denial of atrocity.
Sources:
WHO May 12th 2025
Rueters May 22nd
Gaza Projections Report 3, Oct 22nd 2024
WHO May 22nd
CSIS Article
https://www.csis.org/analysis/siege-gazas-water
WHO report on Lebanon
Middle East Monitor
Australian Broadcast Co
UN Article on malnutrition deaths Mar-May
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/05/1163166
CNN and AU BC on Hala Khreis
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/26/middleeast/hala-khreis-white-flag-shooting-gaza-cmd-intl
TheFreeLineNow 
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