'Israeli' data admits 83% of Gaza casualties are civilians, contradicting previous claims

A joint investigation by +972 Magazine, its Hebrew-language partner Local Call, and the Guardian has found that Israeli Occupation Forces' (IOF) intelligence data indicates most Palestinians killed by 'Israel' are civilians.

According to the report, five out of every six Palestinians killed in the genocide are not resistance fighters.

The investigation drew on a classified IOF intelligence database that, as of May 2025, listed 8,900 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters as dead or “probably dead.” At that time, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that around 53,000 Palestinians had been killed by IOF. This suggests that only 17 percent of the total fatalities were fighters, while the remaining 83 percent were civilians.

When approached by +972 Magazine and Local Call, the IOF did not dispute the database’s existence or the number of Hamas and PIJ deaths. However, when questioned later by the Guardian, a spokesperson stated that “figures presented in the article are incorrect” and “do not reflect the data available” in the military’s systems, without clarifying which details were disputed. The military did not explain why its responses differed between publications.

The dataset named 47,653 Palestinians considered by 'Israeli' intelligence to be active members of Hamas or PIJ. This included 34,973 Hamas operatives and 12,702 PIJ operatives, based on internal documents allegedly seized from the groups in Gaza. Of the 8,900 killed, 7,330 were considered certain, while 1,570 were “probably dead.” Most were junior figures, with only 100–300 senior operatives reported killed out of 750 listed in the database.

The investigation notes that the civilian death toll may be even higher than reported. The Gaza Health Ministry’s numbers likely underestimate deaths, as they do not account for thousands buried under rubble.

In addition, 'Israeli' intelligence may have counted civilians with alleged ties to Hamas as fighters, including police officers or administrative staff, who are considered non-combatants under international law.

“People are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their death,” said one intelligence source who accompanied the IOF on the ground. “If I had listened to the brigade, I would have come to the conclusion that we had killed 200 percent of Hamas operatives in the area.”

The ratio of civilian deaths is also likely to have increased since May, as nearly 2,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed while waiting for aid from the 'Israel'- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

The 83 percent civilian casualty rate is extraordinarily high for modern warfare. According to the Guardian, only a few conflicts in recent decades, such as the Srebrenica genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and the Russian siege of Mariupol, have seen higher proportions of civilian deaths.