According to reporting by Haaretz, Israel has effectively ceased disputing Gaza Health Ministry casualty figures, which document what may be the highest civilian death rate in any war this century. The Israeli newspaper's investigation reveals that even Israeli officials, including former IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi, have acknowledged the scale of casualties, with Halevi recently telling residents of a Gaza border community that more than 10% of Gaza's 2.2 million population has been killed or wounded.
The Gaza Health Ministry reports 65,283 deaths and over 166,000 wounded since the war began, totaling approximately 230,000 casualties. These figures are supported by detailed documentation, including full names and Israeli-issued identification numbers for each deceased person, providing Israel with the means to verify or dispute the data if inaccurate.
Multiple independent investigations have reached similar conclusions about the civilian proportion of casualties. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), a U.S.-based conflict monitoring organization, found that armed combatants comprised less than 10% of deaths during specific periods. An investigation by journalist Yuval Avraham, based on Israeli Military Intelligence databases, discovered that only about 8,900 Hamas and Islamic Jihad members were recorded as killed by May 2024, representing just 17% of the total death toll at that time.
The Israel Defense Forces' own announcements inadvertently support these findings. In August, the IDF reported killing "more than 2,100 terrorists" during a specific operation period when Palestinian health authorities recorded 10,576 total deaths – suggesting combatants represented only 20% of casualties. The military also acknowledged conducting 10,000 attacks to achieve these results, averaging five strikes per militant killed, raising questions about who died in the remaining attacks.
International organizations have expressed alarm at the unprecedented civilian impact. The BBC investigated early IDF claims and found them implausible, while Airwars documented that evidence of militant deaths existed in only 26 of 606 analyzed attacks during the war's first three weeks. The death toll includes 46% women and children under 18, including over 940 infants under one year old, double the rate observed in any conflict studied since the 1990s.
The humanitarian implications are staggering. Behind the statistics lie countless individual tragedies, including entire families eliminated in single strikes. The Jumla family's four siblings, photographed together before they died in a Saturday morning attack, represent just one example of the war's devastating toll on civilian populations.
When questioned about specific incidents involving civilian casualties, IDF spokespersons have repeatedly declined to provide substantive responses about targeting decisions or evidence regarding victims' identities. The military maintains it operates within international law and takes precautions to minimize civilian harm, though the accumulated evidence from multiple independent sources suggests a different reality on the ground.
Photo: Haaretz