LONDON: Wounds caused by Israeli bombs and bullets accounted for nearly half of the injuries treated at outpatient clinics run by Medecins Sans Frontieres in Gaza last year, according to data published in medical journal The Lancet.
Almost a third of day patients treated for such injuries at the charity’s health centers in the territory were children, the figures revealed, further highlighting the devastating human cost to Palestinian civilians of nearly two years of conflict.
The six MSF-supported health centers from which the data was collected were located mostly in central and southern Gaza. More than 200,000 outpatient consultations were conducted at the facilities during 2024. More than 90,000 of them involved wounds, and nearly 40,000 of them were caused by “violent trauma,” primarily the result of bombing, shelling and gunfire.
The data does not include figures for other healthcare services provided by MSF, such as operating theaters and emergency rooms, nor does it take account of people killed at the scene of attacks.
In two of the hospitals, MSF staff found nearly 60 percent of lower-limb wounds were caused by explosive weapons, “often with open injuries to bone, muscle or skin,” according to The Lancet.
