Collecting data has become increasingly difficult in Gaza “due to the destruction of much of the infrastructure”, a new journal published in the Lancet has warned.

Authors of ‘Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential‘ warned that the ministry of health in Gaza “has had to augment its usual reporting, based on people dying in its hospitals or brought in dead, with information from reliable media sources and first responders. This change has inevitably degraded the detailed data recorded previously.”

As a result, they explained, the current figures of those killed in Gaza is “an underestimate”, especially as so much of the Strip lies in ruins, with people buried beneath the rubble.

In addition to the direct death toll resulting from air strikes, “armed conflicts have indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence,” they added……more