Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza has cut life expectancy for Palestinians in Gaza by decades. A study published in the February 8, 2025 issue of The Lancet has found that for Palestinian men, the drop in average life expectancy has been 51.6%, down to 40.5 years during the first 12 months of the war—that’s a loss of 34.9 years of life, on average. For Palestinian women, it has been a cut of 38.6% to an average life expectancy of 47.5 years—a loss of 29.9 years. The authors of the study concluded: “Our approach to estimating life expectancy losses in this study is conservative as it ignores the indirect effect of the war on mortality.… Actual losses are likely to be higher.”
The study’s authors note that an earlier study, published last February, calculated that the death tolls issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health were likely to have been underreported by 41% between October 2023 and June 2024. Instead, it put the number of dead as close to 64,620 (compared to the ministry figure at the time of 37,877).
