Paris — A recent retrospective mortality survey of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff and their families in Gaza, Palestine, reveals the appalling death rate of Israel’s all-out war on the Strip, especially among children. Compared to pre-7 October 2023 Ministry of Health mortality rate estimates, the mortality rate among surveyed MSF staff and their families during the war was five times higher. For children under five, mortality increased tenfold. For babies less than one month, the mortality rate was six times higher.

The survey, run by MSF’s epidemiological arm, Epicentre, covered 2,523 people (MSF colleagues and their family members) over the period between October 2023 and March 2025. The survey results showed that of the people who were alive on 7 October 2023, more than two per cent of them had died since that date; seven per cent had been injured. Furthermore, three-quarters of the deaths were due to war injuries, the vast majority of those from blasts.

Forty-eight per cent of the people who died from blast injuries among our colleagues’ households were children; 40 per cent were under 10 years old.   

“This disregard for children’s lives clearly indicates that this war run by Israel in Gaza is against all Palestinians. The children of Gaza are being decimated,” says Amande Bazerolle, deputy manager of MSF’s emergency department. “Israel’s allies must put all their efforts to end the genocide taking place before our very eyes.”

The MSF survey found a mortality rate in Gaza of 0.41 deaths per 10,000 people per day. The rate rises to 0.70 deaths for children under five years old. One in five of MSF households had at least one member injured by a blast or gunshot.

The results of the survey, conducted among MSF staff and their families only, cannot be extrapolated or assumed as representative of the whole population of Gaza. In fact, medical staff and their families, including MSF, could be considered as having better access to healthcare than the rest of the people in Gaza.

Despite this, the number of deaths not directly attributable to war wounds among staff and their families is increasing over the course of the war, according to study observations. Findings showed that two-thirds of people living with a chronic disease experienced one or more periods of treatment interruption.

This is the result of the Israeli campaign to systematically destroy the health system, and the means of survival of people across the entire Gaza Strip.

In addition, Israel has reduced medical evacuations of sick and injured people from Gaza to a minimum. According to WHO, more than 10,000 people are in urgent need of medical and surgical treatment that cannot be provided inside Gaza. ¹

Since 7 October 2023 and as of 25 June 2025, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported the killing of at least 56,156 Palestinians and the injury of 132,239 others.

The quantitative data from the MSF study helps illustrate part of the reality in Gaza and supports other available data, a point emphasized by the study coordinator Dr Wendelin Moser, from Epicentre. 

“When we compared the names of deceased individuals due to violence from our survey with the list of war-related deaths from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, we matched nearly 90 per cent,” says Dr Moser. “This indicates the validity of the Ministry of Health statistics on the number of deaths in Gaza since 7 October.”

The survey also provides unequivocal data on the level of destruction of MSF family members' households. Only two per cent had a house that remained untouched. At the time of the survey, 59 per cent had a completely damaged house, 39 per cent had a partially damaged house, and 41 per cent of households live in tents. 

MSF calls on the Israeli authorities to stop the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza, and to lift the siege on food, fuel, medical, and humanitarian supplies immediately. We call for Israel’s allies to help facilitate the urgent medical evacuations of people whose lives are in danger, particularly for children.