• Joseph Mendlovic, Yuval Dadon, and Francis B Mimouni.
• Deputy Director Office, Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel, Department of Pediatrics, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, affiliated with the Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel.
• Isr Med Assoc J. 2024 Mar 1; 26 (3): 141142141-142.

BackgroundAccording to Hamas sources, many Israeli hostages in Gaza were killed by indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes, together with a large number of Palestinian citizens.ObjectivesTo verify whether the estimated death rate of Israeli hostages was similar to the estimated death rate of Gaza citizens from these acts of war.MethodsWe used two estimates of hostage death rates, one obtained from Israeli intelligence sources, and one published by a Hamas spokesperson. We used the Palestinian casualty rates published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. We compared death rates using Fisher's exact test.ResultsBy 30 December 2023, the rate of Israeli hostage death was 23/238 (9.7%) according to Israeli intelligence sources, and 60/238 (25.2%) according to Hamas. Both figures are strikingly and significantly higher than the death rate among Palestinians, estimated to be 19,667/2.2 million (0.89%) by 19 December 2023 (P < 0.0001).ConclusionsIsraeli airstrikes as the cause of death of Israeli hostages are implausible unless they were specifically exposed to these strikes more than Palestinian citizens.

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