Leaked IDF Intelligence Reveals ‘Extreme Rate of Slaughter’ of Gaza Civilians
AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi
Figures leaked from a classified Israeli database revealed that the number of combatants confirmed to have been killed in Gaza is far lower than previously claimed.
A joint investigation by the Guardian and Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine found that the internal intelligence database used by the Israeli Defense Forces to record the deaths of militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) deemed 7,330 militants have been confirmed killed while 1,570 were recorded as “probably dead.”
According to the +972 report, intelligence sources said the database is considered by the IDF to be “the only authoritative tally of militant casualty figures.”
The Gaza Health Ministry death toll numbers — which have been questioned publicly by Israel, but according to reports are are considered reliable by the IDF internally — do not differentiate between militant and civilian deaths. But by comparing both the health ministry numbers and the data obtained from the Israeli intelligence database, an approximate civilian casualty ratio for the war can be calculated.
If all deaths recorded in the internal database are the total for militant deaths, then more than 83 percent of deaths in Gaza have been non-combatant civilians. This number spikes even higher to 86 percent civilian death rate if you discount “probably dead” militants.
These figures sharply contradict previous statements made by army officials about the ratio of militant to civilian deaths.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed last year that the IDF has achieved the “lowest ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in the history of modern urban warfare.”
Media figures have also pushed the claim that the war in Gaza, launched by Israel in response to the Oct. 7 massacre by Hamas that killed more than 1,200 people, most of them civilians, is being carried out in an exceedingly cautious way. Commentator Douglas Murray argued to Joe Rogan in April that “one innocent Gazan has been killed for every one terrorist.” Alan Dershowitz defended Israel’s actions in a recent opinion piece in part by claiming that “the ratio of civilian to combatant deaths, [which] is lower for Israel than for any army facing comparable enemies.”
Yet this new leaked Israeli intelligence yields a civilian death rate described in the report as “an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare.”
Indeed, when compared to other conflicts, the civilian death rate would put Gaza above other particularly brutal campaigns — including conflicts in Aleppo, Bosnia, and Syria.
Graphic via The Guardian
Intelligence sources explained to +972 that the total number of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives killed would likely be higher than the Israeli intelligence data shows. This is due to the fact that the database itself does not include any operatives killed who could not be identified by name, nor does it record those in Gazans who took part in the fighting but were not officially members of either militant group.
That said, +972 points out that estimates of the true death toll in Gaza is considerably higher than the one reported by the health ministry. Studies, including one by The Lancet, have suggested the death toll in Gaza is considerably higher than the tally — which currently stands at more than 62,000 dead — provided by the health ministry.
