The Lancet said in a report the figure includes both direct and indirect deaths from the Israeli onslaught and those still buried under the rubble in the blockaded territory.
The journal added that it had applied a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death reported by the Gaza Health Ministry.
“It is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”
Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza offensive on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, the Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 38,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza.
The figure provided by the ministry is “likely an underestimate”, The Lancet said.
“The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population’s inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organizations still active in the Gaza Strip,” it added.
It also called for an immediate and urgent ceasefire in Gaza accompanied by measures to enable the distribution of medical supplies, food, clean water, and other resources for basic human needs.
