The current Israel-Gaza war began on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Hamas attack on Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people, followed by 538 days and counting of Israel’s indiscriminate military assault and siege on Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of people — although the true number could be higher still. A study published in the Lancet last month used multiple data sources to estimate mortality due specifically to traumatic injury for the period from Oct. 7 2023, to June 30, 2024, at 64,260 deaths, while an earlier, conservative measure of indirect deaths resulting from the war estimated at least 186,000 total deaths over the same period.
Throughout all this, Palestinians who have survived in Gaza until now have lived out the adage that necessity is the mother of invention.
