Study Chronicles War-Related Injuries in Gaza

TUESDAY, Sept. 30, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A special article published online Sept. 25 in The BMJ chronicles war-related injuries seen in Gaza.

Omar El-Taji, a research fellow from Manchester, England, and colleagues surveyed 78 international health care workers deployed to Gaza from August 2024 to February 2025 to collect data on 12 anatomical regions, mechanisms of trauma, and general medical conditions.

The researchers found that respondents reported 23,726 trauma-related injuries and 6,960 injuries related to weapons. Traumatic injuries most commonly included burns (18.3 percent) and lower- (17.9 percent) and upper-limb injuries (14.9 percent). Most of the weapon-related trauma included explosive injuries (66.6 percent), predominantly affecting the head (27.8 percent). Firearm injuries disproportionately affected the lower limbs (22.6 percent). Seven in 10 respondents reported managing injuries across two or more anatomical regions and widespread experiences of mass casualties. Respondents reported 4,188 people with chronic disease across 11 domains requiring long-term treatment, as well as 742 obstetric-related trauma cases, of which 36 percent involved the death of the fetus, mother, or both.

“These findings highlight the urgent need for resilient, context-specific surveillance systems, designed to function amid sustained hostilities, resource scarcity, and intermittent telecommunications, to inform tailored surgical, medical, psychological, and rehabilitation interventions,” the authors write.

Abstract/Full Text