Gaza: A survey among MSF workers and their families showed that almost half of people killed are children

A recent retrospective mortality survey of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff and their families reveals the appalling death rate of Israel’s all-out war on Gaza, especially among children, which is consistent with conflict-related figures provided by the Gazan Ministry of Health. Compared to pre-7 October Ministry of Health estimates, the mortality rate was five times higher among the population surveyed. 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 Epicentre, covered 2,523 people (MSF workers and their family members) over the period between October 2023 and March 2025, and showed that more than two per cent of the people surveyed died since 7 October 2023, and seven per cent were 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 and 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,” she says.

The MSF survey has found a mortality rate in Gaza of 0.41 deaths per 10,000 people per day. It rises to 0.70 deaths for children under five years old. Twenty per cent 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 Gaza's population.

Despite this, the number of deaths not directly attributable to war wounds is increasing over the war, according to study observations. Findings showed that two-thirds of those with a chronic disease experienced one or more treatment interruption.

This is the result of the Israeli campaign to systematically destroy the health system and the means of survival of the whole population. In addition, Israel has reduced medical evacuations 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.

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 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 MSF 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. This indicates the validity of the Ministry of Health statistics on the number of deaths in Gaza since 7 October,” he says.

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 them live in tents.