Gaza one of 21st century's 'bloodiest wars' amid high death toll over 10 months

Israel's war in Gaza, ongoing for over 10 months, has been described as one of the 21st century's "bloodiest wars", given the high death toll in a relatively short period of time, in an investigation by Haaretz.

At least 40,005 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 as of Thursday, totalling two percent of the enclave’s population.

The number is considered excessive due to the small population of the Strip and the shorter length of the war in comparison to other, years-long wars and conflicts.

In Ukraine, for example, 0.45 percent of the civilian population has been killed, according to estimates. While two percent of the population in Syria was killed in a decade-long war that began in 2011. During the Vietnam War, estimates state that five percent of the population was killed –in the war which lasted two decades.

Professor Dan Miodownik of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem told Haaretz that the war in Gaza had "already caused a lot more deaths than a number of other outbreaks of violence elsewhere in the world in recent years", and made comparisons with the ongoing Rohingya conflict and the Yazidi genocide of 2015, which had killed 25,000 and 9,100 people.

The report also highlighted that on average, around 4,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza on a monthly basis. In its bloodiest month, 1,370 Iraqis were killed in 2015 during the war against Islamic State.

In 1991, 2,097 people were killed in Bosnia's worst month during the Yugoslav wars, with the total number of those killed amounting to 63,000 over four years.

The report also pointed to Palestinians’ inability to flee the war-hit territory as Israeli bombs rained down and amid a full siege, exposing countless Palestinians to death.

Few Palestinians have been able to leave Gaza, and many were only granted the chance in order to receive medical treatment for severe wounds or illnesses, such as cancer.

Many Gazans have only been left with the option to move around the enclave, in search of safety. The risk of death, however, has remained throughout Gaza despite Israel designating so-called "safe zones".

"In Gaza, the Palestinians cannot be refugees. The only way to flee was to pay $10,000 to a smuggler and cross via one of the tunnels to Egypt. This too is no longer possible. This means the population is stuck in a situation and that is one of the most terrible things," Dan Miodownik told Haaretz.

Haaretz drew comparisons with wars in other countries, such as Syria, where residents were able to seek refuge overseas in significant numbers. Ukrainians were also able to escape to a number of European countries following Russia’s invasion in 2022.

The war in Gaza is also taking place on a small piece of land, while other conflicts globally have typically occurred on larger swathes of territories. The size of Gaza merely stands at 360 square kilometres (around  360 square kilometres).

Gazans aren’t only being killed by air strikes, bombing and gunfire. Debris, a collapsing healthcare system, and a lack of medicine, food and other necessities have contributed significantly to the rampant spread of disease and illnesses, contributing to Palestinian people's deaths.

Around a million Palestinians are suffering from acute respiratory infections, 107,000 Palestinians are dealing with acute hepatitis and thousands more are experiencing other illnesses.

The highly infectious polio has also been detected in recent weeks, raising further alarm in the territory.

High levels of food insecurity, malnutrition and a looming famine are also killing Gazans.

The current death toll may stand at 40,005, but experts have predicted that more Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since October 7. Medical experts from The Lancet journal estimate the death toll to be around 186,000 - 145,995 higher than the official number, provided by the enclave's health ministry.

The Lancet's figure represents 7.9 percent of Gaza's pre-war population estimate of 2,375,259 people.

Additionally, scores of foreigners have been killed in Gaza, since October 7, including UN workers and World Central Kitchen employees.