according to a peer-reviewed study published Friday. For the research in the leading medical journal BMJ, 78 humanitarian healthcare workers mostly from Europe and North America answered survey questions describing the severity, location and cause of the wounds they saw during their stints in the Gaza Strip. The British-led team of researchers said it is the most comprehensive data available about Palestinian injuries during Israel's nearly two-year offensive against militant group Hamas, given that the territory's health facilities have been devastated and international access is heavily restricted. Two thirds of the healthcare workers had previously deployed to other conflict zones, the vast majority of whom said the injuries in Gaza were "the worst thing that they've ever seen", the study's lead author, British surgeon Omar El-Taji, told AFP. Up to three months after they returned from Gaza, the doctors and nurses -- aided by log books and shift records -- filled out a survey about the injuries they saw during deployments lasting from two to 12 weeks between August 2024 and February 2025. They catalogued more than 23,700 trauma injuries and nearly 7,000 wounds caused by weapons -- numbers which broadly echoed data from the World Health Organization, the study said.

It is difficult to get data about injuries in any conflict, but the study described the wounds in Gaza as "unusually severe". In the territory, which has been relentlessly bombed and shelled by the Israeli military, over two thirds of the weapon-related injuries were caused by explosions, according to the study. That is more than double the rate of explosive injuries recorded among civilians in other modern conflicts, the study said. Instead, it was similar to the rate suffered by US soldiers during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it added. (BSSnews)