August 22, 2025 | 02:52 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A leaked Israeli military database has revealed that the vast majority of those killed in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing war were civilians, according to a joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call.
The figures, reviewed by Al Jazeera on Thursday, August 21, 2025, show that as of May 2025, 19 months after the war began, Israeli military intelligence had confirmed or suspected the deaths of around 8,900 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters.
By contrast, Gaza’s Health Ministry recorded at least 53,000 total deaths from Israeli attacks over the same period. This means that only 17 percent of those killed were fighters, while civilians made up about 83 percent of all casualties.
Civilian Death Ratio “Almost Unmatched” in Modern Wars
Conflict researchers described the civilian-to-combatant death ratio as almost unprecedented in contemporary warfare.
They noted that such levels of civilian deaths have only been surpassed during the Rwandan genocide, the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, and Russia’s siege of Mariupol in 2022.
Human rights organizations and genocide experts argue that the findings bolster claims that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Civilians, they say, are being deliberately starved and targeted.
Israel Responds, But Doesn’t Deny Database
When asked about the leaked figures, the Israeli military did not deny the existence of the intelligence database. Instead, a spokesperson insisted the statistics cited in the investigation were “not accurate,” though they did not specify which numbers were being disputed.
Israeli officials have long claimed a much higher number of militant deaths, with politicians and military leaders asserting that 20,000 Hamas fighters had been killed.
Based on these claims, Israel maintained that the civilian-to-militant death ratio stood at roughly 1:1, figures now contradicted by the leaked intelligence.
Leaked Audio and Rising Death Toll
Further controversy arose when Israel’s Channel 12 aired a leaked recording of Aharon Haliva, the former head of Israeli military intelligence. In the audio, Haliva allegedly said:
“For every person killed on Oct. 7, 50 Palestinians must die. They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price.”
The term Nakba (Arabic for “catastrophe”) refers to the mass displacement and killings of Palestinians in 1948 during the creation of Israel.
By March 2025, the Gaza death toll had already surpassed 50,000, according to the enclave’s health ministry. That number has since climbed to over 62,000, with more than 157,000 people reported injured.
The revelations come amid mounting international scrutiny. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed between October 2023 and May 2024.
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