Palestine: MSF survey of staff and their families in Gaza shows almost half of people killed in the war are children
Israel’s disregard for children’s lives clearly indicates that this war is being waged against all Palestinians.
A recent retrospective mortality survey of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff and their families reveals the appalling death rate of Israel’s all-out war on Gaza, especially among children. These findings are consistent with conflict-related figures provided by Gaza’s Ministry of Health (MoH).
The survey was run by MSF’s research arm Epicentre, and covered 2,523 people – all MSF staff and their family members – between October 2023 and March 2025. Compared to MoH estimates prior to the escalation of war on Oct. 7, 2023, the mortality rate was five times higher among the people surveyed. For children under five, mortality increased tenfold over this period. For babies less than one month old, the mortality rate was six times higher.
“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. Israel’s allies must put all their efforts to end the genocide taking place before our very eyes.”
Amande Bazerolle, deputy manager of MSF’s emergency department
Among MSF staff and households surveyed, two per cent of people died and seven per cent were injured during this period from October 2023 to March 2025. Three-quarters of these deaths were due to war injuries, the vast majority of them 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.”
The MSF survey has found a mortality rate in Gaza of 0.41 deaths per 10,000 people per day. This rises to 0.70 deaths for children under five years old. Twenty per cent of MSF households have had at least one member injured by a blast or gunshot.
The results of the survey, conducted among MSF staff and their families, cannot be extrapolated or assumed as representative of the entire population of Gaza. In fact, medical staff and their families, including MSF colleagues, 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 is increasing over the war, according to study observations. Findings showed two-thirds of those living with a chronic disease experienced one or more treatment interruptions.
This lack of access to healthcare is the result of the Israeli campaign to systematically destroy the health system and the means of survival of the whole population. Only 18 out of 36 hospitals remain even partially functional, even as medical needs have exploded. Hospitals are also running dangerously short on essential supplies. Meanwhile, Israel continues to block most medical evacuations despite the fact that, according to the World Health Organization, more than 10,000 people are in urgent need of medical and surgical treatment that cannot be provided inside Gaza.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, and as of June 25, 2025, the MoH in Gaza reported the killing of at least 56,156 Palestinians and the injury of 132,239 others.
The quantitative data from MSF’s study helps illustrate part of the reality in Gaza and supports other available data, a point emphasized by the study coordinator Wendelin Moser, an epidemiologist working with 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 MoH in Gaza, we matched nearly 90 per cent,” says Moser. “This indicates the validity of the MoH statistics on the number of deaths in Gaza since Oct. 7.”
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 MSF staff and their family members live in tents.
MSF calls on Israeli authorities to stop the genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza and to lift the siege on food, fuel, medical and humanitarian supplies immediately. MSF also calls for Israel’s allies to help facilitate the urgent medical evacuations of people whose lives are in danger, particularly children.
