After recent revelations concerning Israel’s military operations in Gaza, serious concerns have surfaced. The high civilian death toll during this ongoing conflict is a reality that cannot be overlooked. Despite these statements, reports indicate that Israeli military rules of engagement permit for the systematic killing of unarmed civilians. This is true even during strikes that target low-ranking militants. Critics have often used the term unprecedented to describe these tactics. Human rights advocates and experts have been tearing them apart, claiming these actions amount to genocide.
As of this writing in mid-May 2025, the official Gaza health ministry toll stands at a staggering 52,928 dead. The overwhelming majority of these deaths are civilians. Israeli intelligence officials have marked about 8,900 fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as killed or “likely killed.” Discrepancies in these figures persist. Israeli politicians and military leaders have suggested that as many as 20,000 militants may have been killed. They have claimed a civilian-to-combatant death ratio as low as 1:1.
Neta Crawford, a leading scholar on the ethics of conflict and military, has serious concerns with Israel’s tactic in Gaza. She writes that these approaches are a departure from long-standing approaches meant to safeguard civilians. She explained that the incident is illustrative of a “worrisome” development in contemporary war. This conclusion is further supported by the information provided by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. It proves that the scale of civilian casualties in Gaza can only be likened to the worst historic crimes against humanity like Srebrenica genocide, Rwanda genocide, and Mariupol siege in 2022.
Israeli military officials then claimed these rather preposterous things in the past few days. In October, Aharon Haliva, Israel’s former head of military intelligence, suggested that mass killings in Gaza were “justified,” if it meant sending a message to future generations of Palestinians. He controversially added, “50 Palestinians must die for every person killed that day, adding that it does not matter now if they are children.” This ominous confession fits into a larger approach in planning to prove superiority with superior levels of violence.
The Israeli military categorically denies that critics have distorted the numbers. They contend that these assertions are not supported by the data. A brief statement issued to the Guardian emphasized that “figures presented in the article are incorrect” and “do not reflect the data available in the IDF’s systems.” As we noted here, internal sources within Israeli intelligence have cast doubt on these public figures. One source remarked that “people are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their death,” suggesting a manipulation of casualty figures for political purposes.
Itzhak Brik, a retired general, has publicly challenged the military’s exaggerated narratives of successful strikes against Hamas. He stated, “There is absolutely no connection between the numbers that are announced and what is actually happening. It is just one big bluff.” Such sentiments underscore the chasm between popular military narratives and what is really happening on the ground in Gaza.
Israel isn’t just planning these military operations, they’re actively implementing them. Human Rights Watch has documented how its military forces shot civilians attempting to access food distribution points in exclusion zones. This tactic has added even more incendiary fuel to charges of non-combatant indiscriminate violence. Mary Kaldor, a professor emeritus of global governance at the London School of Economics, explained her perspective on the underlying coherence of Israel’s strategy. She described it as a template of counterinsurgency warfare aimed at subjugating people and securing territory. She noted, “All of it is killing in the moment for tactical purposes that have nothing to do with extinguishing a threat.”
Critics argue that Israel’s increasingly broad definitions put these examples into a dangerous context. Now, almost everyone in Gaza becomes fair game to be called Hamas. Palestinian analyst Muhammad Shehada stated, “Israel expands the boundaries so they can define every single person in Gaza as Hamas.” This wide-ranging description makes it hard to determine who is a combatant and who is a civilian in war today.
The classified database kept by Israeli military intelligence now runs to almost 40,000 living persons identified as militants. Taken together, this alarming figure shines a light on the troubling inaccuracy of casualty assessments. It further backs up allegations of possible war crimes made by international human rights organizations.