Reacción a "Frontline medical workers detail the severity of injuries among the population of Gaza caused by the Israeli invasion"

The manuscript published in the BMJ is exceptionally valuable in documenting a pattern of traumatic injuries in the civilian population that is unprecedented in recent armed conflicts. The authors rigorously employ an ingenious methodology to obtain information on injuries and their location in a context where primary data are extremely scarce, both because of the Israeli blockade and the destruction of health information systems and medical records.

The method used (surveying only international health workers who have recently left the conflict zone, counting only cases that survived long enough to reach hospital) probably underestimates the number of cases, but more than 23,000 traumatic injuries, nearly 7,000 directly linked to weapons, with a predominance of multiple traumas, deep burns, head injuries and amputations, are more than enough to show the magnitude of the damage to the civilian population and the inadequacy of health services under siege.

The figures shown go beyond a health record. Tens of thousands of people with trauma and wounds, burns that penetrate bone and muscle, children with open skull fractures or shattered limbs, etc. These are not the figures one would expect from a “conventional” conflict, or even from recent conflicts (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria) that seemed particularly cruel. They show an unprecedented scenario in which high-energy, area-effect munitions (thermobaric bombs, incendiary bombs, cluster munitions) have been used in densely populated urban environments. And this is where, despite the academic tone that the article attempts to maintain, the mere description of the injuries and their types becomes an indictment and an expression of outrage.