Gaza Strip
Civilians
The Gaza Strip suffered significant civilian casualties from Israeli bombardments in the beginning of the war.
On 3 November 2023, at least 10 cemetery workers were killed by an Israeli airstrike while working at a graveyard in Beit Lahia. On 4 November, an unnamed Israeli official said that around 20,000 people had been killed in Gaza, "most of them terrorists." On 14 November, two volleyball players, Hassan Zuaiter and Ibrahim Qusaya, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Jabalia refugee camp. As of 1 December 102 UNRWA employees in Gaza had been killed in Israeli airstrikes. On 29 December, UNRWA reported 308 people had been killed in UNRWA shelters. Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that the IDF was taking and holding Palestinian bodies from Gaza, prompting calls for an international investigation on organ theft suspicions. The organization further stated that Israel had systematically killed hundreds of tech specialists, including "programmers, information technology experts, and computer engineering analysts". In March 2024, Al Jazeera English's news blog reported that Israeli forces conducted a pattern of killing entire families by targeting the homes they were sheltering in. An entire family, including both parents and four sons, were shot dead by the IDF in December 2023.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 50 people were killed by Israeli strikes on Jabalia on 31 October and 1 November. Significant civilian casualties were reported following the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion, the Jabalia camp airstrike on 31 October, and the Fakhoora school airstrike on 4 November. Other mass casualty events included the Church of Saint Porphyrius airstrike and the al-Shati refugee camp airstrike, as well as numerous attacks on refugee camps, schools, and healthcare facilities. The United Nations stated they had recorded seven mass casualty incidents just between 24 and 29 October 2024 in the Gaza Strip.
By late-June 2024, a Palestinian NGO reported that as many as 10,000 Palestinians had been disabled by injuries related to the war. According to public health experts, such as chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh Devi Sridhar, the death tolls in the Gaza Strip are likely an undercount.
In September 2025, The Guardian citing data from independent conflict tracker ACLED, that is backed by western governments and the UN, reported a vast majority of Palestinians killed were civilians since Israel's renewed offensive earlier in March. Over a six-month period, ACLED had tracked reports on losses inflicted on Hamas and allied armed groups from "reliable local and international media", Israeli military statements and statements from Hamas and found that Israel's claim of combatants killed had exceeded what could be independently verified. ACLED report wrote, "Since 18 March, Israel claims it killed more than 2,100 operatives, though Acled data indicates that the number is closer to 1,100, and includes Hamas’ political figures, as well as fighters from other groups". Earlier in August 2025, The Guardian cited a classified Israeli military internal report, noting that, if the data was accurate, approximately 83% of Palestinians killed would have been civilians. This ratio of civilian to combatants among dead, is considered unusually high for modern warfare even when compared with conflicts like Sudanese and Syrian Civil War, renown for their indiscriminate killings. The Israeli military had rejected the analysis, arguing that militant deaths may have been undercounted, but did not release alternative casualty figures or a detailed methodology to support its position.
Investigative reports by +972 Magazine and Local Call, as well as reporting by Haaretz, indicates that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have, at times, misreported or classified a high number of civilian deaths as "militants". For example, +972 and Local Call reported that an Israeli battalion stationed in Rafah recorded around 100 Palestinians as militants; however an officer in that battalion later stated that only two of the 100 Palestinians were armed. In a separate case, Haaretz reported that an IDF spokesman stated that all 200 Palestinians who had been killed by the 252nd Division in the Netzarim Corridor were "terrorists", but only 10 of the 200 individuals were subsequently verified as Hamas operatives. In April 2024, members of Israeli Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee had expressed doubt on the figures given to them by the army and later found the army had inflated the militant casualties "in order to create a 2:1 ratio" of civilian to militant deaths. An Israeli intelligence source told The Guardian, +972, and Local Call that they had used figures based primarily on officer testimonies, which likely overcounted Hamas deaths. In contrast, the figures in Israel's internal intelligence database are the only numbers that the army could rely on with "a high degree of certainty" as it uses person-by-person analysis; however, this method may also undercount the number of Hamas deaths.
Demographics In November 2025, a study by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research estimated that the total number of violent deaths in Gaza was between 100,000 and 126,000, of which 27% were children under 15 years old, and 24% women (together making up 51% of the total).
In early September 2025, total casualties exceeded 64,231, with children accounting for at least 30%, and women about 16% (together, 46%). There were 2,596 children who had lost both parents. Furthermore, 53,724 children had lost one parent; 47,804 their father and 5,920 their mother. These September numbers were all cited from the Gaza Health Ministry.
In April 2024, about half a year since the war started, it was initially reported that children comprised 44% and women 26% (making up 70% together). In May 2024, the United Nations adjusted its estimate of the proportion of women and children among those killed in Gaza to 52% – reporting that 32% were children, 20% women – 40% men, and 8% elderly.
Two and a half months into the war, OCHA estimated a total of 20,000 casualties. More than 40% were children, over 31% were women (71% together). In March 2024, five months into the war, the casualties consisted of an estimated 43% children and 29% women (72% together).Women in Gaza describe the hardships they suffer because of the war Retrieved 9 March 2024 Another source later that same month reported that children made up 31.2% of the fatalities, and among adults, including the elderly, 25.3% were women and 43.5% were men.
Children
By 25 October 2023, when over 1000 children had been killed, Qatar's Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani criticized the international community for "acting as if the lives of Palestinian children do not count". In a statement, UNICEF regional director Adele Khodr stated Gaza's child death toll was a "growing stain on our collective conscience". On 28 October 2023, the number of families who had been killed entirely had risen to 825. On 30 October 2023, Save the Children reported more children had died in three weeks in Gaza than in the entire sum of conflicts around the world in the past four years. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini briefed the UN Security Council, sharing Save the Children's analysis. By the end of October 2023 over 3000 children had been killed. The death of Hind Rajab drew significant media coverage following the release of her emergency call and her subsequent disappearance for 12 days.
On 29 February 2024, Gaza's Ministry of Health reported that 44% (i.e. over 13,000) of the fatalities were children. This disproportionate amount is mainly a result of the strip's very young population, of which 40% are below 14 years of age.
On 8 May 2024, the UN officially revised previous numbers regarding the breakdown of casualties following more formal investigations, the total number killed remaining the same. Only considering identifiable casualties, the proportion of children killed in Gaza was reported as 31.6% or 7797 identified children casualties out of 24,686 identified bodies. A joint report by Oxfam and Action on Armed Violence in October 2024 found the Israeli military had killed more women and children in Gaza than in any other conflict around the world in the past two decades.
Civilian to combatant ratio
+ SourceDatePercent civilianDeath countExplanationTotalCombatantCivilianThe Guardian, +972 Magazine and Local Call 83%~53,000~8,900~44,100Classified Israeli military intelligence database listed 8,900 combatants by name as of May 2025. GHM total casualties of 53,000 imply only 17% of those killed were known named combatants. The list did not include combatants who do not belong to Hamas or PIJ, and according to the report was likely undercounting the total amount of militants. However, the report also noted that since Gaza's Health Ministry death toll could be "significantly" undercounted according to recent studies, the civilian-to-combatant ratio could be higher.Action on Armed Violence74.0%40,71710,59530,122"Bare minimum" estimate, assuming male and female civilian deaths are exactly equal80.6%40,7177,88832,829Taking male-female civilian casualty ratio from Airwars' database on Israeli airstrikes in Gaza84.4%40,7176,36634,351Taking the male-female civilian casualty ratio and adjusting for non-airstrike casualtiesMichael Spagat~80%39,145~7,829~31,316"We must guess at the fraction of combatants among the 41.2% [males 15-69]. But the age range of 15 to 69 is wide so I think that a generous estimate for the IDF would be that half of the 41.2% were civilians."Adam Gaffney, a critical care physician and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, in The Nation~80%36,906~7,000~29,906"assume that the number of noncombatant men who have been killed equals the number of women killed"Benjamin Netanyahu~53%~30,000~14,000~16,000No evidence provided. Widely criticized as inaccurate. See below.Armed Conflict Location and Event Data~8,500"However, more detailed IDF reports on the killing of militants containing specifics on timeframes, locations, or operations, recorded by ACLED, account for approximately 8,500 fatalities."Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor~90%21,0221,36219,660~60% of dead were women and children; among adult male deaths (including elderly men), ~65% are civilians based on field documentationHoussein Ayoub (Mathematics Program, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Qatar University), in Frontiers in Public Health Ayoub, H. H., Chemaitelly, H., & Abu-Raddad, L. J. (2024). Comparative analysis and evolution of civilian versus combatant mortality ratios in Israel–Gaza conflicts, 2008–2023. Frontiers in public health, 12, 1359189. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.135918987.3%7,0288936,135Derived a statistical model of combatant deaths from previous Gaza–Israel conflicts and fitted it to the reported deaths from 7 to 26 October 2023. The model yields 87.3% deaths were civilian with a 95% UI: 84.6%–90.3%.