Shaan Sachdev Shaan Sachdev is a cultural essayist based in New York. He writes about ontology, city life, the military-industrial complex, and his two favorite divas: Hannah Arendt and Beyoncé.

Mortality Wars | Estimating Life and Death in Iraq and Gaza

Shaan Sachdev

On October 25, 2023, less than three weeks after Israeli forces began dropping bombs on the Gaza Strip in response to the October 7 Hamas attack, President Joe Biden was asked at a press conference whether the six thousand Palestinian deaths reported by Gaza’s Ministry of Health meant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “ignoring” American directives to minimize civilian casualties. “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the...