The start of a new year heralds in hopes and plans for 2025 with many people making resolutions on ways in which they can improve their lives. In the first week of 2025 74 children in Gaza were killed. There has been no let up to the atrocities being committed upon a civilian population, sheltering in flimsy tents from the cold temperatures in the region. A new report published in the medical journal The Lancet ‘Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024’ has calculated that deaths are under-reported by 41%.

Many of the attacks at the start of the new year took place in the night with multiple casualties – killed and wounded. Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Al Mawasi, a unilaterally designated ‘safe zone’ in the south, were all attacked in the dark of night.

 UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said:

“For the children of Gaza, the new year has brought more death and suffering from attacks, deprivation, and increasing exposure to the cold.

”A ceasefire is long overdue. Too many children have been killed or lost loved ones in a tragic start to the new year.”

More than a million children are living in makeshift tents, and with many families displaced over the past 15 months, children face extreme risks. Since December 26, eight infants and newborns have died from hypothermia – a major threat to young children who are unable to regulate their body temperature. Frozen to death.

 Kamal Adwan Hospital, which had been the only operational medical facility and the sole hospital in northern Gaza with a paediatric unit, is no longer functional following a raid. On December 25th medical staff –  a paediatrician, two paramedics, a maintenance technician, and a laboratory technician were killed.

Water Deprivation

Analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch revealed extensive damage and destruction to water and sanitation infrastructure, including the apparently deliberate, systematic razing of the solar panels powering four of Gaza’s six wastewater treatment plants by Israeli ground forces, as well as Israeli soldiers filming themselves demolishing a key water reservoir.

After the appalling Hamas October 7th 2023 attacks senior Israeli officials, including former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and former Energy Minister and current Defense Minister Israel Katz made public statements expressing the government’s aim to deprive civilians in Gaza of water.

Israeli authorities have barred nearly all water-related humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, including water filtration systems, water tanks, and materials needed to repair water infrastructure.

Human Rights Watch report that “the overall damage to water infrastructure in Gaza during the hostilities has been massive.”

Workers attempting to repair water and filtration systems have been targeted and many killed. The water workers’ coordinates had been shared with the Israeli military ahead of being sent out to make the repairs, clearly marking the work they were doing as humanitarian.

Lack of clean water and food has led to malnutrition and starvation. This means that breastfeeding mothers do not produce milk for their newborn babies and children suffer from diarrhoea – increasing deyhdration.

Deaths due to these causes is under reported.

Using starvation, which includes depriving civilians of water, as a method of warfare by destroying and rendering useless the infrastructure of water systems is a war crime.

At least 1.9 million people – or about 90 per cent of the population – across the Gaza Strip are displaced, and are forced to move on multiple times.

Lancet Report: Deaths are Under Reported

The report in The Lancet published on 9th January 2025, ‘Traumatic injury mortality in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024: a capture–recapture analysis’ finds:

We estimated 64 260 deaths (95% CI 55 298–78 525) due to traumatic injury during the study period, suggesting the Palestinian MoH under-reported mortality by 41%. The annualised crude death rate was 39·3 per 1000 people (95% CI 35·7–49·4), representing a rate ratio of 14·0 (95% CI 12·8–17·6) compared with all-cause mortality in 2022, even when ignoring non-injury excess mortality. Women, children (aged <18 years), and older people (aged ≥65 years) accounted for 16 699 (59·1%) of the 28 257 deaths for which age and sex data were available.”

“Our findings show an exceptionally high mortality rate in the Gaza Strip during the period studied. These results underscore the urgent need for interventions to prevent further loss of life and illuminate important patterns in the conduct of the war.”

There have been variations in the number reported killed due to ‘traumatic injury’. The mechanisms for registering and recording deaths have been severely compromised by the destruction of medical infrastructure and communications. It is not known how many civilians remain buried under rubble, thousands of bodies have never been identified, and thousands of more civilians are missing – many transported to Israeli prison camps, their whereabouts unknown to their families. If deaths due to causes additional to those killed in attacks – starvation, disease, medical complications, hypothermia – are included it is thought the death toll in Gaza could exceed 186 000 (Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential).

The report in The Lancet estimates that total deaths from traumatic injury in the Gaza Strip from Oct 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024 is 64,260 rising to over 70,000 by October 2024.

“The high mortality rates shown by our study, combined with previous evidence, underscore the severe crisis in the Gaza Strip. Our findings validate concerns raised by Palestinian and international organisations, including reputable human rights and humanitarian organisations and UN special rapporteurs, about the scale of civilian casualties. Our study supports the view that the MoH figures are more likely to underestimate than overestimate mortality. This evidence confirms the need for urgent international interventions to prevent further loss of life and address the long-term health consequences of the Israeli military assault in Gaza.”

The Orkney Vigils

In Orkney, islanders will again meet, as they have been doing since October 2023, on Saturday 11th January between 1 and 2pm outside St Magnus Cathedral, Broad Street, Kirkwall, calling for an immediate ceasefire, the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid, and the release of all hostages. All are welcome to join them who wish to see an end to the genocide and a lasting peace.

Fiona Grahame