Ex-'Israeli' forces chief Halevi admits over 200,000 Palestinian casualties in Gaza war

Former 'Israeli' army commander Herzi Halevi has acknowledged that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured during Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza, a staggering figure that represents over 10 percent of the enclave’s population.

Speaking at a community gathering in southern 'Israel' earlier this week, Halevi said, “More than 200,000 people,” adding that “not once” during the campaign had the army’s actions been limited by legal advice.

Halevi, who led the assault on Gaza for the first 17 months of the war before resigning as chief of staff in March following 'Israel’s' intelligence and security failures on Oct. 7, 2023, described the war effort bluntly.

“This isn’t a gentle war. We took the gloves off from the first minute. Sadly not earlier,” he said in remarks published by 'Israel's' Yedioth Ahronoth.

The death toll cited by Halevi is consistent with statistics from the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, figures that 'Israel' has rejected but which the United Nations and humanitarian organisations consider credible.

- Legal and moral questions -

Halevi insisted that the 'Israeli' military follows international humanitarian law but conceded that internal legal oversight never curbed his decisions.

“Not once has anyone restricted me. Not once. Not the military AG [advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi] who, by the way, hasn’t the authority to restrict me,” he said.

In a separate Yedioth Ahronoth report, Halevi was quoted as saying, “There are legal advisers who say: ‘we will know how to defend this legally in the world’, and this is very important for the state of Israel.”

Human rights groups in 'Israel', Palestine, and internationally have accused 'Israel' of genocide in Gaza, citing both the scale of civilian killings and destruction and evidence of intent to eliminate Palestinians as a group. Leading genocide scholars and Holocaust experts have echoed these findings, saying Israel’s actions meet the legal definition of genocide.

Last week, the International Association of Genocide Scholars overwhelmingly passed a resolution declaring that 'Israel’s' policies and actions in Gaza constitute genocide under Article II of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.