featured
83% of Deaths in Gaza Revealed to be Unarmed Civilians // Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald | Trusted Newsmaker
Staggering Civilian Deaths in Gaza: What the Data Reveals
Nearly two years into Israel’s U.S.-financed assault on Gaza, new revelations expose a staggering rate of civilian deaths. Despite repeated assurances from Israeli officials — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) operate with “unprecedented care,” internal data tells a radically different story. Evidence from Israel’s own intelligence undermines official claims and confirms what international observers have long warned: Gaza’s civilians are being killed at a rate almost unparalleled in modern warfare .
The Official Line vs. Reality
Netanyahu has publicly asserted that Israel maintains a civilian-to-combatant kill ratio of roughly one-to-one, framing it as acceptable by wartime standards. He has even claimed that the IDF takes extraordinary measures, such as sending millions of text messages and calls to warn residents before strikes. However, internal Israeli military databases, obtained and reviewed by *972 Magazine*, *Local Call*, and *The Guardian*, contradict those statements. These records show that at least 83% of those killed in Gaza were civilians — a ratio far removed from the government’s portrayal .
The Database That Exposed the Truth
The classified database, maintained by Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, contained the names of over 47,000 individuals it considered militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. As of May 2025, it estimated that only around 8,900 of those operatives had been killed. With more than 50,000 deaths recorded overall, this places the civilian toll at well over 83%. If uncertain militant deaths are excluded, the civilian share rises to 86%. This data, sourced from Israel’s own intelligence, dismantles the official narrative and demonstrates the extreme scale of civilian loss .
Comparisons to Other Conflicts
The civilian toll in Gaza is not just high — it is historically extreme. Data compiled by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) shows that Gaza’s 83% civilian death rate is higher than most modern conflicts. Only Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, Bosnia’s massacres in the 1990s, and Russia’s brief siege of Mariupol show comparable or higher levels of civilian targeting. By contrast, in Afghanistan, civilians represented only about 8% of deaths, and in Ukraine overall, just 10%. In sustained modern warfare, Gaza’s numbers stand almost alone in their brutality .
Dehumanization as Policy
Underlying this staggering death toll is a documented culture of dehumanization. Senior Israeli officials and loyalists abroad have repeatedly suggested that “there are no innocents in Gaza.” This rhetoric, echoed by political figures and even American officials aligned with Israel, creates conditions where civilian lives are treated as expendable. Analysts argue that this normalization of contempt explains the systematic disregard for civilian safety evident in the data .
The Propaganda Gap
The revelations highlight a long-standing pattern of Israeli officials inflating militant death counts while minimizing civilian casualties. For example, Netanyahu claimed in late 2024 that 20,000 Hamas militants had been killed — more than double the figure later confirmed by Israeli intelligence. This discrepancy illustrates how propaganda is used to justify ongoing military operations, even as internal records acknowledge a vastly higher civilian toll .
The newly exposed Israeli database confirms what independent researchers and humanitarian organizations have been warning: Gaza’s war is being waged primarily against civilians. With 83–86% of the dead classified as non-combatants, the claim that the IDF is the “most moral army in the world” collapses under the weight of its own data. Compared to other conflicts, Gaza’s civilian death rate is among the highest in modern history, rivaling only genocides. The implications are clear: this is not collateral damage — it is a pattern of mass civilian killing that demands accountability .
//
