Israeli forces have continued to breach a fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas, resulting in additional civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip on Monday. In response, the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the United States has renewed its call for an end to military aid to Israel, citing a new study published in *The Lancet*.
Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), stated, “This new *Lancet* study offers more evidence of the catastrophic human cost of Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.”
The study, published in the journal on Friday, was submitted by Sammy Zahran, a professor of health economics at Colorado State University, and Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a British Palestinian surgeon based at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. The researchers estimated the number of years of life lost, using data from the Gaza Ministry of Health, which recorded 60,199 Palestinian deaths as of July, including details on age and sex. However, they noted that this list excludes indirect deaths caused by factors such as infrastructure destruction, restricted access to food and water, and loss of medical personnel.
Using mortality and population data from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs for 2022, the researchers calculated life expectancies in the State of Palestine—covering Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Their findings indicated that approximately 3,082,363 life-years were lost in Gaza due to the Israeli assault since October 7, 2023.
The paper highlighted that most of these losses occurred among civilians, even when considering a broader definition of combatants that includes men and boys aged 15 to 44. It also noted that over one million life-years involving children under the age of 15 had been lost.
Awad emphasized the scale of the loss, stating, “To speak of 3 million years of human life erased is to confront the true scale of this atrocity—generations of children, parents, and families wiped out. It is a deliberate effort to destroy a people.”
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its actions in Gaza, and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
CAIR called on the U.S. and the international community to end their complicity by halting all military aid to Israel and supporting full accountability for alleged crimes under international law.
A recent report by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the Costs of War Project at Brown University found that the Biden and Trump administrations provided at least $21.7 billion in military aid to Israel since the start of the conflict.
Federal law prohibits the U.S. government from providing security assistance to foreign military units credibly accused of human rights abuses. A classified State Department document, reported by *The Washington Post*, detailed “many hundreds” of alleged violations by Israeli forces in Gaza, which could take multiple years to review.
Despite efforts to establish a ceasefire, Israeli forces have reportedly violated the agreement, with the head of Gaza’s Government Media Office reporting at least 194 violations as of Monday.
As of Sunday, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 68,865 deaths and at least 170,670 injuries. Previous research, including studies in *The Lancet*, has suggested that the official death toll may significantly underestimate the true number of casualties.
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