Gaza daily death rate higher than any other major 21st century war, says Oxfam

Gaza has the highest daily death rate of any 21st century conflict with an average of 250 people killed every day, an Oxfam report has said, on the same day South Africa makes its case at The Hague against what it calls Israel’s genocide of Palestinian people in the besieged enclave.

Oxfam’s Middle East director branded the death toll in Gaza, which has been subjected to one of Israel’s most brutal bombings against Palestinians in their decades-long conflict, “truly shocking”.

Since the war started just over three months ago, more than 23,000 lives people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, according to health authorities in the Hamas-run territory.

Oxfam noted that about 1,200 people were killed on 7 October, when Hamas carried out its attack in southern Israel that triggered Israel’s retaliatory bombing of 2.3 million-strong Gaza. Another 330 Palestinians were killed in Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the war, the charity added.

The international NGO’s analysis of publicly available data found the average daily death figure in Gaza is significantly higher than any recent major armed conflict including Syria (96.5 deaths per day), Sudan (51.6), Iraq (50.8), Ukraine (43.9) Afghanistan (23.8) and Yemen (15.8).

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East director, said: “The scale and atrocities that Israel is visiting upon Gaza are truly shocking. For 100 days the people of Gaza have endured a living hell. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is at risk of famine.

“It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21^st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire.”

The aid agency also warned of the “massive” threat to life caused by hunger and disease, with cases of diarrhoea in Gaza being 40 times higher compared to the same period last year, although figures are likely to be considerably higher.

The cold winter weather is exacerbating the desperation of people as they lack blankets, fuel for heating devices and hot water. Some are resorting to selling precious food or water supplies for a blanket, according to one of Oxfam’s partner organisations, Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees.

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Mutaz, an engineer who has been displaced to Al-Mawasi town with his family, described the dire conditions they are living in.

“The rain was going down from all sides of the tent,” Oxfam quoted him as saying. “We had to sleep lying over the bag of flour to protect it from the rain.

“My wife and three of my daughters use one blanket at night. There are only enough blankets for four people to share.

“We have nothing.”

A British surgeon who returned from Gaza this week gave i a disturbing account of the injuries he has seen and claimed half of the victims of Israel’s bombing are children.

Nick Maynard, clinical lead of Medical Aid for Palestinians emergency team at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, said: “I’d say at least 50 per cent. There were huge numbers of people suffering terrible burns the likes of which I have never seen before.

“Lots of traumatic amputations of legs and arms, head injuries with exposed brains, blast injuries of shrapnel going through the body.”

Dr Maynard had been in Gaza for two weeks but on Sunday his organisation announced the withdrawal of staff at Al-Aqsa Hospital because of increased Israeli military activity in the area.

Oxfam’s report coincided with a landmark legal showdown between South Africa and Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which will examine whether Israeli actions against Palestinians constitute a genocide.

The case, brought by South Africa at the ICJ in the Hague, accuses Israel of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention, enacted in the wake of the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust, which mandates all countries to ensure such crimes are never repeated.

Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy compared the lawsuit to a centuries-old antisemitic conspiracy theory falsely accusing Jews of killing babies for rituals: “The state of Israel will appear before the International Court of Justice to dispel South Africa’s absurd blood libel, as Pretoria gives political and legal cover to the Hamas rapist regime.”

The preliminary hearings this week will consider whether the court should order Israel to stop fighting while it investigates the full merits of the case.

Israel vehemently disputes the genocide claims, saying it is fighting a war of self-defence after Hamas launched its attack on 7 October.

Israel said its actions comply with international law and that it does its best to prevent harm to civilians, blaming Hamas for embedding in residential areas.