Oxfam: Daily death rate in Gaza higher than any other major 21st-century conflict

According to Oxfam, the Israeli military is killing 250 Palestinians a day, with many more lives at risk from hunger, disease and cold, the organisation said on Thursday.

That daily death toll exceeds that of any other major conflict of recent years, Oxfam added, as the war on Gaza nears its 100th day.

Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Middle East director, said: “The scale and atrocities that Israel is visiting upon Gaza are truly shocking. For 100 days the people of Gaza have endured a living hell. Nowhere is safe and the entire population is at risk of famine.

“It is unimaginable that the international community is watching the deadliest rate of conflict of the 21st century unfold, while continuously blocking calls for a ceasefire.”

The number of dead and missing in Gaza has averaged at around 300 per day since the conflict began. By comparison, the highest death toll in the Syrian war, in 2014, was around 300 per day, with a total of 110,000 killed that year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. In 2013, an average of 265 people died per day, and 238 per day in 2015.

Syria's population is ten times that of Gaza, so proportionately the Gaza death toll is many times higher.