Figures from a categorized Israeli army intelligence database point out 5 out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an excessive fee of slaughter hardly ever matched in latest many years of warfare.
As of Might, 19 months into the struggle, Israeli intelligence officers listed 8,900 named fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as useless or “most likely useless”, a joint investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has discovered.
At the moment 53,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli assaults, in response to well being authorities in Gaza, a toll that included combatants and civilians. Fighters named within the Israeli army intelligence database accounted for simply 17% of the overall, which signifies that 83% of the useless had been civilians.
That obvious ratio of civilians to combatants among the many useless is extraordinarily excessive for contemporary warfare, even in contrast with conflicts infamous for indiscriminate killing, together with the Syrian and Sudanese civil wars.
“That proportion of civilians amongst these killed could be unusually excessive, significantly because it has been occurring for such a very long time,” mentioned Therése Pettersson from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, which tracks civilian casualties worldwide. “When you single out a specific metropolis or battle in one other battle, you may discover comparable charges, however very hardly ever general.”
8,900
Named fighters listed as useless or ‘most likely useless’ in Israeli database as of Might 2025
In international conflicts tracked by UCDP since 1989, civilians made up a better proportion of the useless solely in Srebenica – though not the Bosnian struggle general – within the Rwandan genocide, and throughout the Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022, Pettersson mentioned.
Many genocide scholars, lawyers and human rights activists, together with Israeli academics and campaign groups, say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing the mass killing of civilians and imposed hunger.
The Israeli army didn’t dispute the existence of the database or dispute the info on Hamas and PIJ deaths when approached for remark by Native Name and +972 Journal. When the Guardian requested for touch upon the identical information, a spokesperson mentioned that they had determined to “rephrase” their response.
A short assertion despatched to the Guardian didn’t straight tackle questions in regards to the army intelligence database.
It mentioned “figures offered within the article are incorrect”, with out specifying which information the Israeli army disputed. It additionally mentioned the numbers “don’t replicate the info obtainable within the IDF’s methods”, with out detailing which methods.
A spokesperson didn’t instantly reply when requested why the army had given completely different responses to questions on a single set of information.
The database names 47,653 Palestinians thought of lively within the army wings of Hamas and PIJ. It’s primarily based on obvious inside paperwork from the teams seized in Gaza, which haven’t been seen or verified by the Guardian.
A number of intelligence sources aware of the database mentioned the army seen it as the one authoritative tally of militant casualties.
The army additionally considers the Gaza well being ministry toll dependable, Native Name has reported, and the previous head of army intelligence appeared to cite it not too long ago, despite the fact that Israeli politicians usually dismiss the numbers as propaganda.
52,928
Gaza well being ministry’s general loss of life toll as of 14 Might 2025
Each databases could underestimate casualty numbers. The Gaza ministry of well being lists solely folks whose our bodies have been recovered, not the 1000’s buried below rubble. Israeli army intelligence should not conscious of all militant deaths or all new recruits. However the databases are those utilized by Israeli officers for struggle planning.
Israeli politicians and generals have variously put the variety of militants killed as excessive as 20,000, or claimed a civilian-to-combatant ratio as little as 1:1.
The upper totals cited by Israeli officers could embody civilians with Hamas hyperlinks, reminiscent of authorities directors and police, despite the fact that worldwide legislation prohibits concentrating on folks not engaged in fight.
They most likely additionally embody Palestinians with no Hamas connections. Israel’s southern command allowed troopers to report folks killed in Gaza as militant casualties with out identification or verification.
“Persons are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their loss of life,” mentioned one intelligence supply who accompanied forces on the bottom. “If I had listened to the brigade, I’d have come to the conclusion that we had killed 200% of Hamas operatives within the space.”
Itzhak Brik, a retired common, mentioned serving Israeli troopers had been conscious that politicians exaggerated the Hamas toll. Brik suggested the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, firstly of the struggle and is now amongst his most strident critics. “There’s completely no connection between the numbers which are introduced and what’s truly taking place. It is only one large bluff,” he mentioned.
Brik commanded Israel’s army faculties, and mentioned he saved in contact with serving officers. He described assembly troopers from a unit figuring out Palestinians killed in Gaza, who informed him “most of them” had been civilians.
Though a lot of Gaza has been decreased to ruins and tens of 1000’s of individuals killed, the categorized database lists practically 40,000 folks thought of by the military to be militants and nonetheless alive.
Casualty estimates from Hamas and PIJ members additionally indicated Israeli officers had been inflating the militant toll in public statements, mentioned Muhammad Shehada, a Palestinian analyst.
By December 2024 an estimated 6,500 folks from the army and political wings of each teams had been killed, members informed him. “Israel expands the boundaries to allow them to outline each single particular person in Gaza as Hamas,” he mentioned. “All of it’s killing within the second for tactical functions that don’t have anything to do with extinguishing a menace.”
The ratio of civilian casualties among the many useless could have elevated additional since Might, when Israel tried to exchange UN and humanitarian organisations that had fed Palestinians all through the struggle. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of people trying to get food from distribution centres in army exclusion zones.
Now ravenous survivors, already pressured into simply 20% of the territory, have been ordered to depart the north as Israel prepares for another ground operation that’s prone to have catastrophic penalties for civilians.
The dimensions of the killing was partly owing to the character of the battle, mentioned Mary Kaldor, professor emeritus on the LSE, director of the Conflict Research Programme and creator of New Wars, an influential e-book about warfare within the post-cold-war period.
Worldwide humanitarian legislation was developed to guard civilians in standard wars, during which states deploy troops to face one another on the battlefield. That is nonetheless largely the mannequin for Russia’s struggle in Ukraine.
In Gaza Israel is combating Hamas militants in densely populated cities, and has set guidelines of engagement that allow its forces to kill giant numbers of civilians in strikes on even low-ranking militants. “In Gaza we’re speaking a couple of marketing campaign of focused assassinations, actually, fairly than battles, and they’re carried out with no concern for civilians,” Kaldor mentioned.
The ratio of civilians among the many useless in Gaza was extra similar to latest wars in Sudan, Yemen, Uganda and Syria, the place a lot of the violence had been directed in opposition to civilians, she mentioned. “These are wars the place the armed teams are inclined to keep away from battle. They don’t need to combat one another, they need to management territory they usually do this by killing civilians,.
“Perhaps that’s the identical with Israel, and it is a mannequin of struggle [in Gaza] that’s about dominating a inhabitants and controlling land. Perhaps the target all the time was pressured displacement.”
Israel’s authorities says the struggle is one in all self-defence after the Hamas-led assaults on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 folks.
However political and army leaders usually use genocidal rhetoric. The final who led army intelligence when the struggle started has mentioned 50 Palestinians should die for each particular person killed that day, including that “it doesn’t matter now if they’re youngsters”. Aharon Haliva, who stepped down in April 2024, mentioned mass killing in Gaza was “crucial” as a “message to future generations” of Palestinians, in recordings broadcast on Israeli TV this month.
Many Israeli troopers have testified that every one Palestinians are handled as targets in Gaza. One stationed in Rafah this 12 months mentioned his unit had created an “imaginary line” within the sand and fired at anybody who crossed it, together with twice at youngsters and as soon as at a lady. They shot to kill, to not warn, he mentioned. “No person aimed for his or her legs”.
Neta Crawford, a professor of worldwide relations at Oxford College and co-founder of the Costs of War mission, mentioned Israeli ways marked a “worrisome” abandonment of many years of practices developed to guard civilians.
Within the Seventies public revulsion about American massacres in Vietnam pressured western militaries to shift how they fought. New insurance policies had been imperfectly applied however mirrored a deal with limiting hurt to civilians that now not seemed to be a part of Israel’s army calculus, she mentioned.
“They are saying they’re utilizing the identical sorts of procedures for civilian casualty estimation and mitigation as states like america. However in the event you have a look at these casualty charges, and their practices with the bombing and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, it’s clear that they aren’t.”
