War deaths are not only caused by direct violence, and they don’t stop when the fighting does. Civilians as well as combatants may succumb to earlier injuries, or to hunger and disease in the aftermath of conflict. In the longer run, disruption of food production, damage to infrastructure and suspension of medical services such as routine vaccinations can all result in peacetime deaths which are ultimately attributable to the war. Women and children are disproportionately affected.
More than 27,000 people have now been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities. Tens of thousands of people are injured, in many cases with life-changing injuries. What will become of those now known by the chilling abbreviation WCNSF – “Wounded child, no surviving family”?
