Sep 7, 2024
Israel has flouted a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
The UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, has warned “with horror” that if Israel’s military assault on Gaza is not stopped, it “could end up exterminating almost the entire population” of the enclave “over the next couple of years.”
Citing a recent report by The Guardian, Albanese said: “The range of presumable direct and indirect deaths could be between 15 and 20% of the population already by the end of this year, according to Prof. @devisridhar (and that’s in line with the work of other academics).”
“Once the dust settles, I can’t imagine how the world will go on after having allowed that. Again,” Albanese added in her post on X on Friday.
Reading the health experts, I am starting to think with horror that if it’s not stopped, Israel’s assault could end up exterminating almost the entire population in Gaza over the next couple of years.
The range of presumable direct and indirect deaths could be between 15 and…
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) September 6, 2024
Professor Devi Sridhar, in her article, referenced the Lancet medical journal’s estimation that “about 186,000 total deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza, which is roughly 7.9% of its population, by mid-June 2024.”
Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, said: “If deaths continue at this rate – about 23,000 a month – there would be an additional 149,500 deaths by the end of the year, some six and half months from the initial mid-June estimate.”
“Using the method, the total deaths since the conflict began would be estimated at about 335,500 in total,” the professor stated.
‘Half a Million Deaths’
Sridhar said she made a “crude estimate” last winter based on other conflict situations and assessing the number of fatalities there would be “if fighting continued without international intervention.”
“In December 2023, my estimate was about half a million deaths without a ceasefire,” she said.
This, Sridhar added, roughly aligns with the Lancet estimates, “they used a very conservative estimate, but allowed that the number could easily be much higher.”
My latest column on making sense of disease & death in Gaza https://t.co/3faAM951vj
— Prof. Devi Sridhar (@devisridhar) September 5, 2024
She pointed out that the figure also shows “what could have happened had the international community not acted, and taken advantage of the brief windows available to deliver aid and medical care.”
“Many have been saved by these various pauses in fighting and humanitarian interventions, even if patchily enforced,” the professor stressed.
UN Resolution Ignored
Israel has flouted a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Tel Aviv is currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, due to its ongoing devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,878 Palestinians have, to date, been killed, and 94,454 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the enclave.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
Israel’s aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
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