Gaza's 60,000 dead cannot be explained away

An Israeli looks towards Gaza on January 1. The current number of Palestinians killed by Israel's military operation since October 2023 is likely to be an considerable underestimate. Reuters

Possibly the most disturbing aspect of Monday’s confirmation that more than 60,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in Gaza since October 2023 is what this macabre milestone does not tell us.

Firstly, this death toll is almost certainly an underestimate. As far back as a year ago, British medical journal The Lancet was reporting that it was “not implausible” for the number of fatalities to have reached 186,000 or more, once direct and indirect causes of death were considered. What that estimate could be 12 months on does not bear thinking about.

The grim figure of 60,000 does not include those who have lost limbs, had their entire family killed or who will struggle for years to recover from psychological trauma and the effects of the manufactured starvation that is currently sweeping through Gaza’s ruins, particularly affecting children, the elderly and the infirm.

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Nor does that figure take account of the intentional destruction of Palestinian institutions by the Israeli government’s policy of collective punishment. Hospitals, schools and universities have all been reduced to fragments as Palestinian civilians are displaced time and again or hounded into tent cities and deadly queues for aid that resemble a shooting gallery more than a humanitarian operation. At the same time, Israel’s decades-long military occupation of the West Bank, coupled with violence from radical settlers, continues to constrain and undermine Palestinian communities.

It is a dispiriting picture but it is also clear that public opinion internationally is shifting to the point where Israel’s response to the brutal Hamas-led attacks of October 7 is now widely viewed as wanton, illegal and unjust. Images of skeletal Palestinian children cannot be explained away by deflections about threats or anti-Israel bias.

As Israel’s leadership continues to shred what is left of the country’s reputation and alienate many allies – even US President Donald Trump recently spoke out about the mass starvation in Gaza – other voices are offering a way out of this morass. This week’s Saudi Arabia and France-led summit on the two-state solution not only reinforced the reality that there is no alternative to a just political settlement, but it also called for Hamas to lay down its arms and join a new Palestinian leadership. As Khalifa Al Marar, UAE Minister of State, told the UN in New York on Tuesday, every day that passes without a solution “deepens the wounds and distances the chances of peace”.

This grim figure does not include those who have lost limbs, had their entire family killed or who will struggle for years to recover from psychological trauma and the effects of manufactured starvation

Meanwhile, more countries are moving closer to recognising Palestinian statehood. It now seems likely that the UK will do so later this year, given the remote possibility of Israel ending its war.

With the UN General Assembly coming up soon, there is an opportunity to exert further political pressure on an Israeli government whose strategy – if it can be called that – is not only failing to recover its remaining hostages but leading its own people into a cul-de-sac of perpetual conflict and isolation.

It may be true that diplomatic meetings and speeches can seem far removed from the realities of daily life in Gaza. Nevertheless, global diplomatic co-ordination remains the best hope of ending the possibility of reaching more ghastly milestones such as that seen on Monday and to eventually forging a path towards peace.

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