Relatives of the Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack mourn their loss as the bodies are brought to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for funeral prayer and burial, in Deir al Balah, Gaza on January 12, 2025.

A new independent study published in the Lancet medical journal estimates that Gaza’s death toll in Israel’s ongoing military offensive has been severely underreported — a finding that aligns with the very real challenges local officials continue to face in counting the Palestinian territory’s dead without the proper health care infrastructure.

The Gaza Ministry of Health (MOH) reports that 37,877 Palestinians were killed by violence in the first nine months of the military offensive, which began in October 2023 after Hamas’ deadly attack in Israel.

But according to researchers with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the number of Palestinians killed by violence in the same period is estimated to be closer to 64,260 – a whopping 41% higher than the ministry’s count. That number amounts to one in 35 inhabitants of Gaza’s estimated pre-war population.

“The high mortality rates shown by our study, combined with previous evidence, underscore the severe crisis in the Gaza Strip,” said the peer-reviewed LSHTM study published on Thursday in The Lancet. “Our findings validate concerns raised by Palestinian and international organisations, including........

© HuffPost