Life expectancy for men in Gaza dropped from 73.6 years, pre-genocide, to 35.6 years: the largest crash in modern world history
This, quite literally, is the textbook outcome of a sustained genocide that is absolutely decimating every single aspect of life inside of Gaza.
When I first saw those numbers - that the life expectancy of men in Gaza has crashed over 50% (and those numbers only went through September of 2024) from 73.6 years before the genocide to 35.6 years - I thought maybe I was reading it wrong. I wasn’t. It’s the largest crash in life expectancy in the modern history of the world.
Here is a link to the full study in The Lancet.
The men of Gaza have become an afterthought to much of the world - and Israel knows this and exploits it. When tens of thousands of children are slaughtered, when hundreds of pregnant moms have been massacred, it shocks the conscience, and I understand why. It hits me the same way. But Israel has been able to basically obliterate any man or boy over the age of 12 in Gaza without the world really seeming to even be bothered. Israel has successfully caused the world to believe that about 1 million boys and men are all terrorists that are deserving of death.
They shoot them while they are waiting in line for food.
They bomb them from drones when they are out walking.
They blow up their homes, businesses, schools, mosques, hospitals with them still there.
And all Israel has to do is tell you “those men are Hamas” and the world accepts it. First off, a tiny percentage of men in Gaza work with or for Hamas. Secondly, Hamas is actually the local government there and everybody that works for them aren’t fighters. The men who pave the streets or oversee trash collection or sewage technically worked for Hamas, but that just means they worked for the government. Lastly, I have to address the elephant in the room…
Israel tells so many lies that they seem to have forgotten their previous lies when they tell their new ones.
From October 7th, 2023 until August 31st of 2024, Israel said that about 3,000 Palestinians participated in the October 7th attacks. Then, after killing nearly 50,000 people they said, without any quantifiable evidence that the number of Palestinians that entered was closer to DOUBLE their original number and was 6,800 men.
But on October 10th, Israel was stating publicly that it killed thousands of Hamas fighters on October 7th. In fact, so many Palestinians were completely scorched to death and burned beyond recognition inside of Israel on October 7th that for over a year Israel said 1,400 Israelis were killed before admitting that hundreds of the bodies were of Palestinians. Israel slaughtered so many of their own people from helicopters and tanks that they couldn’t tell who was who.
For the sake of argument let’s say 6,800 Palestinian men participated on October 7th (I don’t believe this number), but let’s accept it. And let’s say thousands of those men were killed on October 7th - taking the number of them alive back down to around 3,000. Israel and America have already killed tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Palestinian men.
They aren’t even attempting to claim these men did anything to anyone any more. They aren’t even claiming to have a list of any more men they are looking for from October 7th.
Because their plans now truly aren’t about October 7th. Now it has fully shifted to ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shaun King is one of the most followed and shared activists and journalists in the world. Hailed by Time Magazine as “1 of the 25 most influential people in the world on the Internet,” Shaun is most known for fighting against police brutality and mass incarceration in the United States, the genocide of the Palestinian people, and oppression around the world. Devout Muslims, Shaun and his wife of 25 years, Dr. Rai King, are proud parents of five wonderful children.
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This is horrifying. Thank you for sharing with us. The dehumanization of Palestinian men, women, and children is sickening,