The official toll represents roughly 2 percent of Gaza’s population killed by Israel.
The official death toll from Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza has surpassed 40,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry — but with thousands missing under the rubble or dead from disease or starvation, the true death toll is likely far higher.
According to the health ministry, as of Thursday, officials had counted 40,005 killed and 92,401 wounded by Israel. This includes at least 16,456 children killed by Israel’s assault. Experts say the death toll indicates that the genocide ranks among the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century.
On top of that, government officials said on Thursday that another 10,000 people are missing under the rubble, meaning that the death toll may be at least 50,000.
As the UN’s top human rights chief Volker Türk noted, the official death toll represents 130 people killed each day by Israel over the past 10 months. This is a “grim milestone,” Türk said, that is “overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war.
