Civilians following an Israeli airstrike, 10 October 2023 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-Med 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 crossed into the
Netzarim Corridor and were killed by the 252nd Division were "terrorists". But only 10 of the 200 individuals were subsequently verified as Hamas operatives.
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. In early September 2025, total casualties exceeded 64,231, with children accounting for at least 30%, and women about 16%. 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 May 2024, the United Nations adjusted its estimate of the proportion of women and children among those killed in Gaza, reporting that 32% were children, 20% women, 40% men, and 8 percent 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. In March 2024, five months into the war, the casualties consisted of an estimated 43% children and 29% women. 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. 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.
Civilian to combatant ratio The Gaza Ministry of Health casualty numbers do not provide the proportion of casualties who are civilian; as a result, varying estimates have been given by analysts. A study by the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in
The Lancet covering the period 7–26 October estimated 68.1% of casualties were children, women or elders and therefore likely non-combatants, while an analysis published in December in
Haaretz by Israeli sociologist Yagil Levy estimated at least 61% of the casualties were in this category. Both studies were based on figures from Gaza's Ministry of Health. Considering only women, children and elderly as civilians (i.e. classifying all adult men as combatants) gives a conservative figure for civilians, although the true proportion of civilians is likely higher. In early December,
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor estimated that 90% of the casualties were civilians. In December, Israel's military said it estimated two out of three (66%) of those killed to be civilians. On 31 December,
Al Jazeera English stated 2023 was the deadliest year for Palestinians since the 1948
Nakba. In late April 2024 Khalil al-Hayya, a top Hamas official, said that no more than 20% of Hamas's fighters had been killed. US intelligence estimated in June 2024 that between 11,000 and 13,000 militants have been killed.
Israeli military reports In early December 2023, an Israeli official reported Israel had killed 5,000 militants, On 29 December, the IDF said it had killed 8,000 Hamas fighters. On 30 December 2023,
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor estimated 2,353 militant deaths (based 30,034 total and 27,681 civilian deaths). On 19 February 2024, one Hamas official told Reuters 6,000 of its militants had been killed, but a second Hamas official denied this figure in an interview with BBC. The IDF did not confirm that number to the BBC, but in two separate responses, said the figure is "approximately 10,000" and "more than 10,000", with the Israeli embassy in London giving a similar figure. On 12 May Netanyahu said about 14,000 militants and 16,000 civilians had been killed in Gaza – that about 47% of the deaths were of militants. On 15 August 2024 the IDF said more than 17,000 militants had been killed. The AP, CNN, Washington Post, NBC and others have all said that the IDF has provided no evidence for its reports of how many militants it has killed, or been unable to verify what the IDF has said. Sources have doubted the Israeli figures by questioning the IDF's ability to distinguish civilians from combatants (for example,
the IDF mistakenly identified three Israeli civilians as Palestinian militants). Many observers believe Israel simply treats all adult male casualties as militants. Other observers argue that Israel could be arriving at inflated figures of militant deaths by including all civil servants as militants. In March 2024,
Haaretz interviewed several standing army commanders and reserve commanders who cast doubt on Israel's official figures of how many "terrorists" it had killed. Many of those included in the combatant killed count were simply "Palestinians who never held a gun in their lives".
Impacts On 13 October, the Palestinian Ministry of Health noted 20
surnames had been removed from Gaza's
civil registry, meaning every single person in that entire family had been killed.
The New York Times stated, "Family trees have been dismembered, and whole branches obliterated." An
Associated Press investigation found 60 Palestinian families where at least 25 people were killed between October and December 2023, sometimes across four generations. On 16 October 2023, UNRWA stated there were so many deaths in Gaza that there were no longer enough
body bags. Because the morgues were so overcrowded, bodies were kept in
ice cream trucks. On 11 November 2023, Monir al-Bashr, the director of the Health Ministry of Gaza, stated graves were being dug by hand. On 12 November 2023,
Mai al-Kaila noted staff at Al-Shifa were unable to bury 100 decomposing bodies. On 14 November 2023, the
Palestinian Red Crescent noted it was unable to rescue the wounded and injured beneath the rubble, noting, "Those injured are left there in agony to suffer and die with no response to their calls of help." By August 2024, the dead were being buried in the streets and house yards, as well as in
mass graves. At the end of January 2024
BBC reported that based on a recent report from the
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor more than 24,000 children have lost one or both parents due to the war. The United Nations agency
UNICEF have estimated that there are about 19,000 orphaned or unaccompanied children in Gaza, with some being dug out of rubble or found throughout the strip.
Famine The
Gaza war has led to imminent
famine conditions in the
Gaza Strip, resulting from
Israeli airstrikes and the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel, which includes restrictions on
humanitarian aid. By February 2024, 2.2 million people in Gaza were experiencing food insecurity at emergency level. Airstrikes have destroyed food infrastructure, such as bakeries, mills, and food stores, and there is a widespread scarcity of essential supplies due to the blockade of
aid. By March 2024, this had caused starvation for more than half a million Gazans and is part of a broader
humanitarian crisis in the Strip. It is the "highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger" ever recorded on the
IPC scale, In March 2024, the
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) aid partnership said that the residents of Gaza are perishing due to starvation. The alarming pace at which this crisis of hunger and malnutrition, caused by humans, is spreading in Gaza is deeply concerning. Half of Gaza's entire population is currently facing catastrophic conditions and is on the brink of famine, a situation that has never been seen before. Approximately 1.1 million individuals in Gaza – half its population – were grappling with severe hunger. By October 2024, the IPC and World Food Programme reported that more than 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza were experiencing "extremely critical" levels of hunger, resulting from 70% of crop fields destroyed and livelihoods decimated during Israel's offensive. A letter sent to President
Joe Biden, Vice President
Kamala Harris, and others on 2 October 2024 by 99 American healthcare workers who have served in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023, using the
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification standards and the available data on the severity of food shortage in different parts of Gaza, calculated that there had been at the very least 62,413 deaths in Gaza from starvation (most of them young children) and at least 5,000 deaths from lack of access to care for chronic diseases. This estimate was included in the estimate for indirect deaths in the war in a study from the
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at
Brown University. According to
UNRWA, in the four months to mid December 2024, some 19,000 children were treated for acute malnutrition. As of August 2025,
Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) projections show 100% of the population are experiencing "high levels of acute food insecurity", and 32% are projected to face Phase 5 catastrophic levels by September 30, 2025. In response,
Human Rights Watch stated that after three decades working in Gaza and conducting its own investigation, it considers Gaza Health Ministry's totals to be reliable. On 26 October, the Gaza Health Ministry responded by releasing a 212-page document of 6,747 individual names and
ID numbers, as well as 281 unidentified fatalities. The US State Department Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs told a Congressional hearing on 9 November that the death toll was "very high, frankly, and it could be that they're even higher than are being cited." The
Biden administration ultimately changed to faith in the health ministry statistics. The GHM's casualty count was also initially disputed by the
Trump administration but was later cited by
President Trump. Every death registered in Gaza is the result of a verified change in the
population registry approved by the
Government of Israel. The Israeli government notes that its "Population Registry Office works to update population registry files located on the Israeli side to match the files that are held" in the West Bank and Gaza. On 26 October, the
United Nations humanitarian office added they use the Gaza Ministry of Health's death totals because they are "clearly sourced" and their estimates have been described as trustworthy by the
World Health Organization's (WHO) regional emergency director Richard Brennan. In May 2024,
The Economist argued that the Ministry of Health's death tolls were "legitimate" and marked the lower bound of lives lost. Around mid-November, the Gaza Health Ministry had begun to lose count of deaths stating that it struggled to update casualty tolls as a result of blackouts, high death tolls, and the
destruction of the healthcare system. On 6 January 2024, the Gaza Health Ministry requested that civilians register their dead online, as the
healthcare system collapse had resulted in the ministry being unable to maintain a regularly updated death toll. In February 2024, a joint study by the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health at
Johns Hopkins University found the war continuing at status quo would result in between 58,260 and 74,290 excess deaths by 6 August. As of 29 February, the Gaza Health Ministry stated that its daily tallies now rely upon "a combination of accurate death counts from hospitals that are still partially operating, and on estimates from media reports to assess deaths in the north of Gaza", but did not "cite or say which sources those are." On 31 March, it stated that 15,070 fatalities (45.8% of the then total) had been compiled via "reliable media sources" instead of direct reporting. The Ministry further clarified in reports made on 1 and 4 April that it had "incomplete data" for 12,263 (later reduced 11,371) of its 33,091 reported fatalities. On 25 June, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor estimated 51,000 extra natural (non-casualty) deaths have resulted from the blockade and from the collapse of the health system. On 16 September 2024, the Gaza health ministry released another 649-page document, listing the names of 34,344 Palestinians who had been killed and identified by 31 August. The first 187 pages of the document entirely contained children who were under 16 years old. On 23 March 2025, after two months of collecting bodies during the ceasefire, the Gaza health ministry published a third document 1,516 pages long, listing the names of 50,021 Palestinians who had been killed. The first 350 pages of the document entirely contained children who were under 16 years old. In January 2026, Israeli sources reported that, for the first time, an Israeli military official accepted figures released by Gaza's health ministry, showing that more than 71,000 Palestinians were killed since October 2023 by direct Israeli fire, not by other causes such starvation and those buried under the rubble. The official stated that the IDF is currently analysing the data to calculate the number of people who were killed are combatants and civilians.
Journalists in Gaza was killed in March 2025. The IDF confirmed that it had deliberately targeted Shabat. Numerous Palestinian journalists in Gaza were killed by Israeli attacks while in the line of duty. Ibrahim Mohammad Lafi, a photographer for Ain Media, was fatally shot during the attack on the Erez crossing on 7 October, while Mohammad Jarghoun, a reporter with Smart Media, was killed east of Rafah on the same day. Freelance journalist Mohammad el-Salhi was also shot dead on the border east of
Bureij refugee camp on 7 October. On 9 October, Saeed al-Taweel, editor-in-chief of Al-Khamsa News website, Mohammed Subh and Hisham Alnwajha were killed by an airstrike while filming an anticipated attack in
Gaza City. On 10 October, two additional journalists were reported missing, and another was injured by shrapnel. The homes of two journalists were destroyed by shelling, and the offices of four media outlets were destroyed by airstrikes. On 22 October, Rushdi Sarraj was killed by an Israeli airstrike on his home. On 24 October, reporter
Wael Al-Dahdouh lost his entire family due to an Israeli airstrike. On 27 October, the IDF told
Reuters and
Agence France Presse it would not guarantee their journalists' safety in Gaza. On 30 October, Al Jazeera correspondent
Youmna El-Sayed received a threat from Israeli forces, leading the spokesperson for the UN-Secretary General to remark on the "immense courage" of journalists in Gaza. On 2 November, Mohammed Abu Hatab and 10 members of his family were killed by an Israeli airstrike. On 19 October, the committee to Protect Journalists stated 21 journalists were confirmed dead, eight were injured, and three were missing or detained. A 29 October report by
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that Israel had targeted journalists who were clearly identifiable as press, in two 13 October missile strikes that killed a reporter and injured four. On 31 October, RSF said that 34 journalists had been killed to date in the conflict, including 12 "in connection with their work", ten of whom were killed in Israel's attack on Gaza; they described the first two weeks of the conflict as the deadliest start of a war of the 21st century for journalists. On 7 November, an Israeli airstrike killed journalist Mohammad Abu Hasira and 42 of his family members. On 23 November, photojournalist Mohammad Moin Ayyash and his family were killed by an Israeli airstrike. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), nearly half of the journalists killed worldwide in 2025 died in Gaza, with the Israeli armed forces responsible for approximately 43% of global journalist fatalities.
Investigations On 1 November, Reporters Without Borders asked the
International Criminal Court to begin a priority war crimes investigation into the killing of nine journalists. RSF noted 41 journalists had been killed during the first month of the conflict, stating multiple journalists had been killed by Israel in their homes. Israel maintains records of the place and residence of every person in Gaza. RSF stated Israel had used targeted strikes to kill journalists in Gaza.
Health and aid workers ambulance hit by an Israeli missile in
Khan Yunis|alt=Men surrounding a bombed vehicle. There is some blood streaking it. On 11 October, UNRWA reported that nine of their workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike, and that its headquarters were being targeted by Israel. 11 members of UNRWA and five members of the
Red Cross and Red Crescent were killed in Gaza since the start of the fighting. MSF said it had counted 16 medical personnel killed since 7 October. MSF said a nurse and an ambulance driver were killed, and several others injured in Israeli strikes on the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis and the
Indonesia Hospital in Gaza City. The Indonesian Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C) confirmed a staff member was killed near an operational MER-C vehicle. On 22 October, UNRWA stated that 29 staff members had been killed in Gaza. On 30 October, the Palestinian Ministry of Health stated 120 medical staff had been killed in Gaza. On 10 November, the UN reported more than 100 employees had been killed by Israel. On 11 November, UNRWA rejected Israel's claims that UN workers were undercover Hamas agents. On 12 November, the UN noted three nurses at al-Shifa hospital were killed during the
Siege of Gaza City. More UN workers were killed in Gaza than in any other conflict in world history. According to The Healthcare Workers Watch – Palestine, more than 400 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza. On 21 November, an Israeli airstrike on the
Al-Awda Hospital killed three doctors.
Doctors Without Borders shared the last words of one of the doctors, Mahmoud Abu Nujaila: "Whoever stays until the end will tell the story. We did what we could. Remember us." On 24 December, a
UNDP worker was killed in an airstrike, along with 70 members of his family.
Missing and buried Saadi Hassan Sulieman Baraka, a 64-year-old undertaker in
Deir el-Balah, told
Al Jazeera English in February 2024 that he had personally buried 17,000 people since October 2023. By August 2024, the dead were buried throughout the Gaza Strip, including in public spaces such as yards and streets.
Scavenging animals have made it difficult to for emergency services to identify the bodies of killed Palestinians. In an October 2024 article, a returning IDF troop spoke about IDF procedures involving
armored bull dozers, that have made it more difficult in identifying and recovering bodies of deceased Palestinians. A former IDF soldier recounted to the Knesset that soldiers were instructed to "run over terrorists (in Gaza), dead and alive, in the hundreds" adding that "everything squirts out". == Israel ==