Casualties of the Gaza War

On October 7, 2023, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian armed groups launched a mass terrorist assault on southern Israel. The attack killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and left more than 5,400 wounded.[6][1] Victims came from at least 33 nationalities and included Jews, Muslims, Arabs, Bedouin, Druze, and foreign nationals.[1] A UK parliamentary report said 18 UK citizens were among the victims.[2]

Israel subsequently revised its initial estimate of more than 1,400 killed downward to approximately 1,195, with the revised breakdown recorded as 778 civilians, 282 IDF soldiers, 57 Israel Police officers, and 38 local security officers.[3] A peer-reviewed study of the mass-casualty event reported more than 1,300 Israelis killed and more than 200 abducted during the attack, with 1,457 casualties evacuated to hospitals during the first day alone and a peak arrival rate of 83 injured people per hour at Soroka University Medical Center.[7] A separate peer-reviewed report documented more than 1,145 killed, roughly 1,800 wounded people evacuated to hospitals, and 253 persons abducted.[8] Emergency medical service records analyzed from Magen David Adom showed more than 1,200 deaths and more than 9,000 injuries, with 39.3 percent of 4,097 emergency-dispatch records on that day directly related to the attack.[9]

Approximately 251 Israeli and foreign nationals were seized as hostages and taken to Gaza.[10] The UK Parliament's All-Party Parliamentary Group on UK-Israel described the attack as the deadliest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.[2] The U.S. Department of State's detailed section separately recorded at least 843 civilian victims, including 36 children, and more than 1,941 Israelis and foreigners injured; those figures differ from the executive-summary totals in the same report.[6]

Israeli civilian casualties were tracked by multiple official bodies using differing definitions and reference dates, producing totals that must be read in context. The Israeli National Insurance Institute recorded 790 civilian fatalities in the Iron Swords war, excluding security forces, after two additional civilians died of their injuries in hospital — comprising 508 men and 282 women, of whom 725 were Israeli citizens and 65 were foreign workers.[11] The Institute stated that its list was received from the Israel Police after identification and notification of families.

In its one-year report, the National Insurance Institute reported 885 civilian casualties added to the hostile-actions casualty count, excluding security forces and on-call units handled by the Ministry of Defense. The breakdown was 581 men and 304 women, including 803 fatalities in southern Israel, 29 in northern Israel, and 33 in central Israel.[12] As of the Israeli Memorial Day 2025 report, 934 Israeli civilians had been killed since the war began, including 778 killed during the October 7 attack itself; the civilian total included 58 children under 18 and 76 foreign nationals.[13]

The April 2025 National Insurance Institute update cited by the Jewish Virtual Library also recorded 934 Israeli civilian deaths, broken down as 615 men, 319 women, and 58 children under age 18.[3] More than 14,000 Israelis were reported injured across the course of the war.[3] The Israeli government's press kit, issued earlier in the conflict, reported that 12,867 Israelis had been wounded as of January 7, 2024, separately listing 3,900 wounded minors as of January 3, 2024 — 2,073 males and 1,827 females.[14]

Military and security-force fatalities were recorded across several categories depending on the scope of counting. As of the Israeli Memorial Day 2025 report, 928 Israeli soldiers and security personnel had been killed since October 7, 2023: 809 IDF soldiers, 39 local security officers, 70 police officers, and 10 Shin Bet members.[13]

The Jewish Virtual Library separately reported, as of May 28, 2026, that 472 Israeli soldiers had been killed and 6,424 soldiers wounded, of whom 3,004 were injured since the beginning of ground operations.[3] A broader count of 968 soldiers killed during the war was also given, incorporating soldiers who died inside Israel while fighting the October 7 attackers.[3] The Israeli government's earlier press kit listed 510 fallen soldiers overall, including 314 killed during the October 7 massacre and 175 IDF soldiers killed in action during the ground operation, though that document did not specify a reference date.[14]

The IDF acknowledged 59 soldiers killed by friendly fire or accidents.[3] A broader Defense Ministry figure counted 1,152 security personnel killed in the war when accounting for deaths from accidents, illness, or suicide.[3] The Congressional Research Service, writing as of October 2, 2024, recorded at least 346 Israeli soldiers killed in battle since Israeli ground operations in Gaza began.[10]

The terrorist attack resulted in 251 or 253 persons being abducted and taken into Gaza — figures vary slightly across sources depending on definitions and the stage of identification.[1][8] The National Insurance Institute's one-year report recorded that 217 civilians were abducted, excluding security forces and on-call units handled by the Ministry of Defense.[12] Of those civilian hostages, 116 were released — 92 Israeli citizens and 24 foreigners — while 27 civilian hostages were deemed fatal casualties and buried in Israel.[12]

The Congressional Research Service reported that, by October 2024, 117 hostages had reportedly returned alive, approximately 37 had been recovered dead or killed in encounters, and approximately 97 remained in Gaza; at least 33 of those remaining were presumed dead.[10] These figures were presented with qualifications and based on media and government reporting rather than a single independently verified enumeration.[10] More than 70,000 victims of hostile actions had received care through the National Insurance Institute — a category encompassing nonfatal victims and disability claims, not deaths alone.[12]

The principal Palestinian casualty totals reported here come from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. As of July 22, 2026, the ministry counted 73,305 Palestinians killed and 173,918 injured since the war began on October 7, 2023 — a total that included casualties incurred during Israeli operations after an October 2025 ceasefire.[3] A separate Times of Israel report updated August 17, 2026, cited a lower ministry total of 71,667, including more than 450 people killed after the October 2025 ceasefire, while the IDF independently assessed that approximately 70,000 people had been killed in Gaza; the Israeli military said the actual civilian-versus-terrorist breakdown remained under review.[15]

Earlier snapshots document how the totals evolved. By the end of 2023, the Israeli military response had killed more than 21,000 Palestinians and injured more than 56,000, based on UN figures derived from the Hamas-led Gaza Ministry of Health, with approximately 40 percent of those killed estimated to be children and an estimated 7,000 Palestinians buried under rubble or decomposing in the streets — a figure that was an estimate rather than a confirmed death count.[6] As of October 2, 2024, the Congressional Research Service reported that more than 41,000 Palestinians had reportedly been killed according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, a figure that presumably included both combatants and civilians.[10] A Washington Institute analysis placed the ministry's May 19, 2025 Telegram total at 53,475 deaths, while its ninth released formal list contained 52,958 unique entries covering deaths through May 11, 2025.[5] The Israeli Institute for National Security Studies reported that as of February 10, 2026, the ministry had reported 72,037 deaths.[16] A Tel Aviv University Peace Index publication from July 2025 cited over 60,000 Palestinian deaths, though it did not specify an exact cutoff date, reporting authority, or verification method.[17]

The conflict also caused repeated mass displacement in Gaza, with close to 2 million Palestinians repeatedly displaced as Israeli military operations expanded.[1] At least 10,000 civilians were thought to remain buried under rubble and were not included in Israel's figures, while many civilians were listed as missing or unaccounted for because verification was extremely difficult.[1]

In figures covering fatalities recorded through April 30, 2024, the Gaza Health Ministry reported 34,622 total deaths, of which 24,686 had full identifying details: 7,797 children, 4,959 women, 1,924 elderly people, and 10,006 men.[4] An earlier UN breakdown had reported more than 9,500 women and more than 14,500 children among approximately 34,735 Gaza deaths as of May 6, 2024 — figures that were subsequently revised substantially. Two days later, the UN reported 4,959 women and 7,797 children among 24,686 specifically identified deaths, while the broader reported total remained above 34,000; the later figures thus applied to identified fatalities rather than the entire reported total.[4]

For a reported snapshot at above 40,972 total deaths, the ministry had fully identified 32,280 fatalities: 5,956 women and 10,627 children, together constituting 51.3 percent of the identified total, though analysts cautioned that the women-and-children category could include combatants and that the identified-fatality total was smaller than the overall reported death toll.[18] The Washington Institute's analysis of the ministry's ninth formal list — covering 52,958 unique entries — found that adult men constituted 49.3 percent of reported deaths. Men and teenage boys aged 15–59 accounted for 48.6 percent of reported deaths while representing roughly 28 percent of Gaza's population; among people aged 18–45, men were reported to be 2.85 times more likely than women to have died.[5] The analysis stated that the available data could not establish a precise civilian-combatant ratio, though it assessed that the uncounted portion was likely moderate in size and skewed toward militants.[5]

The Gaza Health Ministry separately reported that at least 440 Palestinians died from malnutrition or starvation during the war. Israel rejected that figure; an Israeli military official said the count included people with serious underlying health conditions.[15]

Between October 7 and December 31, 2023, UN figures documented 144 UN staff, 312 health workers, and 40 civil-defense workers killed in Gaza.[6] UNRWA separately reported 142 of its own staff members killed and 314 internally displaced people killed while sheltering in UNRWA installations during the same period.[6] The U.S. Department of State noted that the humanitarian-worker categories may overlap, so these figures should not be summed without accounting for potential double-counting.[6]

The data-collection methods used by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry have been the subject of significant scrutiny. Approximately 60 percent of its fatality reports came through the hospital and morgue system, roughly 10 percent through self-reporting by relatives via a Google Form, and roughly 30 percent through reports from what the ministry called reliable media sources — a category later reclassified as “unidentified.”[4] The ministry's records reportedly included names and identification numbers for more than 90 percent of bodies found, but the records did not distinguish civilians from combatants.[15]

An INSS commentary argued that the ministry attributes deaths uniformly to Israel without distinguishing people killed by Israeli fire from those killed by Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups, and without separating war deaths from deaths due to natural causes, old age, or illness.[16] It cited a Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics figure of approximately 6,500 deaths per year in Gaza from all causes as relevant context for evaluating the ministry's cumulative totals.[16] Its subsequent estimate of approximately 30,000 terrorist operatives killed and its proposed civilian-to-combatant ratio were presented as the author's assessment rather than independently verified counts.[16]

Between March 31 and August 6, 2024, 9,778 deaths were removed from the media-reports category in the ministry's data as records were reassigned to other categories, raising methodological questions about the stability of cumulative totals.[5] The CAMERA organization reported additional problems after the hospital system collapsed in December and January: the Ministry of Health began relying on difficult-to-verify media reports, its March report included 531 individuals counted twice, and many deaths were self-reported by families rather than registered by health officials.[18] An earlier distinction between more than 34,000 total deaths reported by Hamas and more than 24,000 fatalities identified at a particular revision point illustrates the gap between total claimed deaths and those with identifying information.[18]

The UN stated that its teams in Gaza could not independently verify the figures because of conditions on the ground and the sheer number of fatalities, and identified the Gaza Health Ministry, the Hamas-run Government Media Office, and Israeli authorities as its sources, pending further verification.[4] The Washington Institute further reported that OCHA relays casualty statistics supplied by the ministry and the Government Media Office but does not independently generate or verify them; OCHA's revised disclaimer identified the figures as yet to be verified by the UN.[19] OCHA's data reduced the reported number of women and children killed by almost 47 percent between May 6 and May 8, 2024, after earlier figures had relied on Government Media Office claims.[19] The Anti-Defamation League concluded that no credible source had published accurate statistics for the number of confirmed Gazan civilians killed.[1]

Determining how many of the reported Palestinian deaths were combatants and how many were civilians has been one of the most contested aspects of the war's casualty record. The IDF stated that before the October 2025 ceasefire it had killed at least 22,000 combatants in Gaza, in addition to approximately 1,600 terrorists killed inside Israel during the October 7 attack.[15] Israeli officials previously estimated that two to three civilians were killed for every terror operative in Gaza, while stressing that the precise breakdown remained unknown.[15] Israel also argued that Hamas operated from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.[15]

The Congressional Research Service presented Israel's estimate that approximately 17,000 of Hamas's estimated 25,000–30,000 fighters had been killed as of October 2024, explicitly identifying that figure as an Israeli claim rather than an independently verified estimate.[10] The Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center attributed to the ministry a cumulative total of 53,475 killed and 121,398 injured as of May 13–20, 2025, along with 3,340 deaths and 9,357 injuries attributed to the period since Israeli operations resumed on March 18, 2025; the center qualified the cumulative figures as alleged and stated it did not independently verify them.[20]

The Washington Institute's analysis of the ministry's May 2025 list concluded that the demographic skew toward men of fighting age was significant — men and teenage boys aged 15–59 made up 48.6 percent of reported deaths while representing roughly 28 percent of the population — but emphasized that the available data could not establish a precise civilian-combatant ratio.[5] One HonestReporting analysis, working from a reported total of 70,125 deaths, estimated approximately 11,000 natural deaths and 1,000 reporting errors or anomalies.[21] It separately proposed approximately 25,000 combatant deaths and 36,000 civilian deaths from Israeli military action, producing an estimated civilian-to-combatant ratio of about 1.5:1.[21] Another HonestReporting analysis estimated 22,000–25,000 Hamas fighters killed, about 11,000 natural deaths, and about 4,000 deaths from internal fighting among Gazans.[22] These were analytical estimates, not independently verified casualty censuses.[21][22]

Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani stated on January 30, 2026, that published figures attributed to the IDF did not reflect official IDF data, rejecting claims that the Israeli military had officially accepted any Hamas-supplied casualty total.[21]

A Tel Aviv University Peace Index survey conducted online from July 17–22, 2025, among 612 respondents representing Israel's adult population aged 18 and over, captured Israeli public attitudes toward casualty levels on both sides.[17] Among Jewish respondents, 15 percent said the Israeli casualty level was justified and 73 percent said it was unjustified; 72 percent said the Palestinian casualty level was justified and 18 percent said it was unjustified.[17] Among Arab respondents, 13 percent judged the Israeli casualty level justified and 70 percent unjustified, while 8 percent judged the Palestinian casualty level justified and 76 percent unjustified.[17] These percentages measured respondents' views and were not casualty counts.[17]

The casualty record of the Gaza war is characterized by competing figures, changing totals, and unresolved definitional disputes. The Gaza Health Ministry is the principal source for Palestinian death totals cited in this article, and its reporting does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.[5] An INSS commentary further argued that the ministry's cumulative figures do not separate deaths caused by Israeli forces from those caused by Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups, or war deaths from natural deaths.[16] The UN has explicitly acknowledged it cannot independently verify the figures.[4] Totals differ substantially across dates and sources, and each figure must be read alongside its date, its source, and whether it refers to all reported deaths or only those with full identifying information.

On the Israeli side, separate official counts exist for civilians killed on October 7, total civilian deaths throughout the war, soldiers killed in the ground operation, all soldiers killed during the war, and broader security-force categories including accidents and illness. These categories are not interchangeable, and combining figures from different agencies and dates without attention to definition produces misleading sums.[3][12] Estimates of people buried under rubble, missing, or presumed dead are not equivalent to confirmed identified deaths; at least 10,000 civilians were estimated to remain buried under rubble and were not included in Israel's figures.[1]

The Washington Institute's analysis emphasized that the ministry's ninth formal list remained subject to revisions and that neither the total death toll nor its demographic composition should be considered fully resolved.[5] All casualty totals in this article require an associated date, and figures reported without one should be treated with caution given the temporal instability of the underlying data.[17]