Gaza: Survey of Doctors Without Borders staff and families finds almost half of people killed are children

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 Doctors Without Border emergency department. “Israel’s allies must put all their efforts to end the genocide taking place before our very eyes,” she says.

The Doctors Without Borders 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 Doctors Without Borders households had at least one member injured by a blast or gunshot. 

The results of the survey, conducted among Doctors Without Borders 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 Doctors Without Borders, 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 Doctors Without Borders 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. 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 Doctors Without Borders 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.  

[Read now: Explainer on Doctors Without Borders's retrospective mortality survey among our staff and families in Gaza]

Doctors Without Borders calls on the Israeli authorities to stop the genocidal campaign against the Palestinians in Gaza; to lift the siege on food, fuel, medical, and humanitarian supplies immediately; and calls for Israel’s allies to help facilitate the urgent medical evacuations of people whose lives are in danger, and in particular of children.