Mr. Éamonn Meehan:

This is an independent piece of research that has just been published. I will make it available to the clerk of the committee as well. This is research conducted by a research team from the University of London and the Catholic university of Leuven in Belgium. It was conducted in December 2024 and January of this year. It involved face-to-face interviews with 2,000 randomly selected households across each of Gaza’s five governorates. Participants were asked to list household members present before the war and their current status, providing an on-the-ground snapshot of mortality through direct testimony. Essentially, the research found that the actual numbers up to date – the real number – is 40% greater than those provided by the Gaza ministry of health. The reason for that is many of those who have died never reach a health facility or a morgue and, therefore, are not counted. The figure includes direct fatalities as a result of bombardments and shootings, and indirect deaths as a result of perhaps people who have cancer but have no treatment, dialysis not being available and all of that kind of situation. They estimate at least 90,000 people have died in Gaza since October 2023. We are told the current figure is 58,000, but extrapolating that, according to this research, by an additional 40% brings that number to more than 90,000. This is published in New Scientist. The commentary I have seen on it from other researchers is positive in terms of how it was conducted, the methods and the numbers. This is in accord with other research we saw published in The Lancet in 2024 and also with some work done by Harvard University.