Søren Roest Korsgaard

Since Israel’s full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip subsequent to the October 7^th 9/11-style atrocity, the world has witnessed violence on a massive scale. However, the total number of deaths as a result of the invasion remains unclear.

The methodology of exclusively reporting violent deaths adopted by media and most other organizations significantly downplays the actual cost. The reason is that it is well-established that deaths from deprivation significantly outnumber violent deaths [1]. In 2008, the Geneva Declaration Secretariat published an overview of the ratio between violent and indirect deaths for 13 conflicts, showing that it ranged from 1:2.3 to as high as 1:15.7 [2]. The median value of the dataset I have calculated to be 5.2 indirect deaths per violent death.

In February 2025, Jamaluddine et al. estimated in the Lancet that the number of violent deaths totaled 64,260 between October 7, 2023, and June 30, 2024 (268 days) [3]. Of these, 33.3% were children.

If we factor in indirect deaths using the median value of the aforementioned dataset, we can estimate the total number of deaths, i.e., violent deaths plus indirect deaths. Algebraically, this can be simplified to Total Deaths = Violent Deaths * (1 + 5.2) = Violent Deaths * 6.2. Assuming a constant daily rate of violent deaths (~239.78/day), it can be calculated that the full-scale invasion has incurred a cost of 810,204 lives as of April 3, 2025.

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
William Shakespeare