Violent Deaths in Postmortem Cases in the West Bank in the Years 2013-2023: A Retrospective Study

Manner-specific mortality is an important measure for evaluating the health of a population. Violence-related deaths in Palestine is a neglected topic in local studies. We aimed to analyze the epidemiological patterns of violence by examining manner-specific mortality in postmortem cases from the northern region of the West Bank-Palestine. Additionally, we sought to identify the risk factors associated with social violence. We reviewed and analyzed autopsy reports stored in the Forensic Medicine Institute's database at An-Najah National University from 2013 to 2023. The study focused on deaths caused by violence, which were categorized based on the manner of death: intentional (homicide or suicide), unintentional (accidental), and political (incidents related to war). Out of 1101 cases, 316 (28.7% were attributed to political violence, which was primarily linked to the Israeli occupation; 94.9% were males, 69.1% were young adults, and 49.8% originated from urban areas. In the remaining 785 cases, 367 (46.8%) were deaths related to social violence, with 33.4% being homicides and 12% being suicides. The main causes of death related to social violence were gunshot wounds (46.6%), hanging (21.3%), and stab wounds (13.6%). Social violence was more prevalent among males (OR=2.220, p -