How much does a child cost?

Today, Saturday October 21, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published the names, and in some cases the activity and/or age, of 683 of the 1,400 victims of the Hamas attack of October 7.

On the other hand,thePalestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health today published data on casualties in Gaza as of October 20.

And finally, theOCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ), as it does every day, produces figures for both sides.

We thought it would be interesting to graph a few facts and figures.

Indeed, I think it’s pointless to comment on these figures, as they speak for themselves. Nevertheless, I would like to emphasize the humanitarian disaster suffered by the children of Gaza. Behind the coldness of the figures, the horror and immense suffering of the reality splashes out on us all, of course the Palestinians and the Israelis, but also, whether we like it or not, all of us. De-escalating this conflict is a moral obligation in the strongest and noblest sense of the word.

1. Data from today’s Haaretz:

683 victims identified out of 1,300 (according to Haaretz). Of these, ~ 53% were identified military personnel, police officers, border guards and private security guards, and 2.3% were children (<18 years old).

2. Today’s data from the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health:

4385 victims to date, 40% of them children (<18 years).

OCHA data: provides an overview (report 14).

Christophe de Brouwer

Honorary full professor and former chair of the School of Public Health at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. (October 21, 2023)