IDF confirms estimates of 70,000 fatalities in Gaza war, including 25,000 terrorists, as Israeli military says not a single famine death could be confirmed, while number of live births tops pre-war level
Israel’s military said Thursday that it estimates that roughly 70,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the war with Hamas in October 2023, similar to the figures provided by the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.
However, the IDF and the Gaza health ministry differ sharply in their estimates of the number of civilians killed during the war. Hamas officials have claimed that approximately 70% of the 71,400 deaths reported by its health ministry were women or children – a figure challenged by independent analyses, most of which place the number under 50%.
The IDF has estimated that at least 25,000 terrorists were killed, according to The Jerusalem Post, reflecting a 1.8 to 1 ratio of civilian to combatant fatalities. That places the Gaza war within the range of major contemporary conflicts and roughly equal to an approximately 2 to 1 ratio reported in the war in Iraq.
