Australian mainstream media continue to hugely understate Gazan death toll
By Richard Hil and Gideon Polya
Like other western countries, Australia’s mainstream media continue to under-report deaths in the ongoing Gazan Genocide. In drawing on data from the Gazan Ministry of Health - which reports violent deaths overwhelmingly from IDF operations – such outlets ignore deaths from imposed deprivation. For example, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on 2 September 2025 reported that: “A total of 63,557 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which says another 160,660 people have been wounded” [1]. This figure is part of a much larger story of death and destruction in Gaza that should include non-violent deaths from imposed deprivation.
Epidemiological data cited in the leading medical journal, The Lancet, indicates that by 30 June 2024 (day 269 of the genocide), 64,260 Gazans had died which means, based on an extrapolation of the official data, that 136,000 Gazans died violently by 25 April 2025 (day 569). Using a conservative estimate of deaths from imposed deprivation – that is, around 4 times the number of violent deaths (544,000) - brings the total number of Gazans killed since 7th October 2023 to 680,000 – a ten-fold increase on what is routinely reported by the Western media. And it is infants who bear the brunt - about 70% of avoidable deaths from deprivation in impoverished countries are those of under-5 years of age [2]. It is estimated that of the 680,000 dead Gazans (28% of the pre-war Gaza population of 2.4 million) 380,000 are under-5-year-old infants, 479,000 children in total, 63,000 women and 138,000 men [3].
We have sought to inform Australian media about this huge under-counting. Earlier this year, we published articles in the Arena Online and in Independent Australia detailing the full scale of the Gazan carnage. We did so to help present the full story of the genocide and, ultimately, to push the case for peace with justice [4, 5]. Our article in Independent Australia concluded: “The full scale of death in Gaza since 7 October 2023 cannot be attributed simply to violent deaths caused by the actions of the IDF. Deaths from imposed deprivation must be factored into the analysis. In so doing, the actual death toll of 680,000 deaths from violence and imposed deprivation by 25 April 2025 (28 percent of the pre-war Gaza population of 2.4 million), posits an extraordinary picture of unremitting carnage in which children and women are most impacted” [5]. Interestingly, as reported by eminent epidemiologist, Professor Devi Sridhar, President Trump’s recent slip that there are presently 1.7 million Gazans implies a 0.7 million shrinkage of the territory’s pre-war population of 2.4 million [6].
To our knowledge, the only other references in the Australian media to this under-counting are an article in Pearls & Irritations by editor and publisher John Menadue entitled “The real death toll in Gaza” [7], a republished Open Letter in the same publication by American analyst and consumer advocate, Ralph Nader, on 20th August 2025 [8], and a several letters also published in the same outlet [9, 10].
Nader calls on his fellow journalists - here and everywhere - to do the hard work: to actively research and report the actual number of Gazans killed since the beginning of the genocide in October 2023. He argues that the data must include not only those killed through direct violence, but also fatalities resulting from injury, trauma, lack of medicines, water, food, shelter, sanitation, power and other basic necessities. Drawing on epidemiological studies, Nader states the true death toll to be closer to 500,000 - figures that have been placed on the US Congressional Record [8].
Publicising this figure, Nader argues, “would affect the intensity of the political, diplomatic, and civic pressures for a ceasefire. It would also prompt more strenuous calls for immediate humanitarian aid, an immediate ceasefire, and peace negotiations” [4]. Crucially, it would also assist in holding the Israeli government and military leadership to account. Nader’s plea should not go unheeded. To do so is to render hundreds of thousands of deceased Palestinians invisible.
The most frequently aired moral injunction stemming from the Shoa (the WW2 Jewish Holocaust) was ‘never again’ – never again to racism, violence, and mass murder; never again to complicity, lying and cover-up. Yet here we are, witnessing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. However, Australia’s so-called ‘legacy media’ – the dominant and powerful US-owned Murdoch media, the Nine Network and Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC – continue to vastly under-report the Gaza death toll. In stark contrast, Middle East Monitor has posted on X details of our estimate of 680,000 Gaza deaths by 25 April 2025, and the post has at the latest count generated over 0.5 million views so far after 2 days [11].
The ABC, while not banning the use of words like genocide, occupation and ethnic cleansing, has nonetheless been reluctant to use them, preferring more sanguine terminology from ‘official’, largely Israeli, sources. By also under-reporting Gazan deaths, the ABC in effect is consigning hundreds of thousands of Gazan victims to obscurity. This under-counting has gone unnoticed by the Australian mainstream media except for Independent Australia [5].
Clearly, with Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza, the killings at the notorious Humanitarian Aid Foundation sites, and an officially declared famine, the death toll will rise sharply. The assault on Gaza City and the forced expulsion of its remaining residents will of course make a horrendous situation considerably worse.
What journalists, academics, activists, and others should not abide – morally or politically - is the reporting of fatalities that ignores the true scale of the carnage in Gaza. Bluntly, mainstream western Journalists need to do their job. They should seek to emulate the courage and bravery shown by fellow journalists reporting from Gaza. The UN has reported that 242 journalists reporting the Gaza massacre have been murdered – this translates to “journalists killed per year per million of population” of 64.5 in Gaza as compared to 0.5 in Syria, 0.3 in Afghanistan and 0.01 throughout the world [12]. We say to journalists who fail to do their job: silence is complicity and inaction is complicity. They have a duty to those who have lost their lives to properly remember their passing.
References
[1]. Eric Tlozek, “International Association of Genocide Scholars says Israel committing genocide in Gaza”, ABC News, 2 September 2025: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-02/leading-scholars-say-israel-committing-genocide-in-gaza/105723090 .
[2]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, 2nd edition, Korsgaard Publishing, 2021.
[3]. Gideon Polya, “VJ Day 80th Anniversary: Racist West Ignores Australia-complicit WW2 Chinese, Bengali & Gaza Holocausts”, Countercurrents, 9 September 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/09/vj-day-80th-anniversary-racist-west-ignores-australia-complicit-ww2-chinese-bengali-gaza-holocausts/ .
[4]. Richard Hil and Gideon Polya, “Skewering History: The Odious Politics of Counting Gaza’s Dead”, Arena, 11 July 2025: https://arena.org.au/politics-of-counting-gazas-dead/ .
[5]. Richard Hil and Gideon Polya, “Gaza death toll far worse than reported in Western media” Independent Australia, 12 August 2025: https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/gaza-death-toll-far-worse-than-reported-in-western-media,20034 .
[6]. Kevin Maimann, ““1.7 million” Palestinians in Gaza? Trump’s statement raises questions about death toll”, CBC, 13 February 2025: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-gaza-population-relocation-1.7457559 .
[7]. John Menadue, “The real death toll in Gaza”, Pearls & Irritations, 5 September 2025: https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/09/the-real-death-toll-in-gaza/ .
[8]. Ralph Nader, “Open letter to journalists on the vast undercount of deaths and serious injuries in Gaza”, Pearls & Irritations, 20 August 2025: https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/08/open-letter-to-journalists-on-the-vast-undercount-of-deaths-and-serious-injuries-in-gaza/ .
[9]. Gideon Polya, “10-fold MSM undercounting of 680,000 Gaza deaths”, Pearls & Irritations, 21 August 2025: https://johnmenadue.com/letters_to_editor/2025/08/10-fold-msm-undercounting-of-680000-gaza-deaths/ .
[10]. Gideon Polya, “Chinese, Bengali and Gaza holocausts”, Pearls & Irritations, 2 September 2025: https://johnmenadue.com/letters_to_editor/2025/09/chinese-bengali-and-gaza-holocausts/ .
[11]. Middle East Monitor, "680,000 dead", 13 September 2025: https://x.com/MiddleEastMnt/status/1966532981058605192 .
[12]. Gideon Polya, “Anas Al-Sharif Died Reporting Gaza Holocaust: Israel Leads World In Killing Journalists”, Countercurrents, 18 August 2025: https://countercurrents.org/2025/08/anas-al-sharif-died-reporting-gaza-holocaust-israel-leads-world-in-killing-journalists/ .
Dr Richard Hil is adjunct professor in the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Griffith University, Gold Coast, and adjunct professor in the Faculty of Law, Business and Arts at Southern Cross University. He is an author, academic and activist. He is the author of numerous books, notably co-authoring “The Sacking Of Fallujah. A People’s History” by Ross Caputi, Richard Hil and Donna Mulhearn.
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia over 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, notably a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (2003). He has also published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (2007, 2021), “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (1998, 2008, 2022), “US-imposed Post-9-11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” (2020), “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions” (2020), “Free Palestine. End Apartheid Israel, Human Rights Denial, Gaza Massacre, Child Killing, Occupation and Palestinian Genocide” (2024), and contributed to Soren Korsgaard (editor) “The Most Dangerous Book Ever Published – Dangerous Deception Exposed!” (2020). For images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ .