Eighty-three percent of Palestinians killed in Gaza were civilians: Report
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/aug/21/revealed-israeli-militarys-own-data-indicates-civilian-death-rate-of-83-in-gaza-war
Eighty-three percent of those killed in Israel’s war on Gaza have been civilians, the Guardian and Israeli news outlets +972 and Local Call have found, citing classified Israeli military intelligence figures.
The report found that, as of May, Israeli intelligence officials had listed 8,900 named Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters as dead or “probably dead”.
That amounts to just 17 percent of the some 53,000 Palestinians who had been killed in Israeli attacks by that date.
“That apparent ratio of civilians to combatants among the dead is extremely high for modern warfare, even compared with conflicts notorious for indiscriminate killing, including the Syrian and Sudanese civil wars,” the report said.
Palestinians have said since the beginning of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza that the vast majority of those killed were civilians, including women and children. They have also condemned the Israeli military for its indiscriminate attacks, which have decimated the enclave.
Meanwhile studies have already put the real death toll much higher.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02009-8
Almost 84,000 people died in Gaza between October 2023 and early January 2025 as a result of the Hamas–Israel war, estimates the first independent survey of deaths.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/10/gaza-death-toll-40-higher-than-official-number-lancet-study-finds
Gaza death toll 40% higher than official number, Lancet study finds
Take that 40% under counting of direct deaths and that 17% goes down to 12%, over 8 civilians per claimed combatant, 88%. Compared to Ukraine, 10% of deaths are attributed to civilians in Ukraine.
Five Palestinian children missing after seeking aid in Gaza: Rights group
Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) is raising alarm after at least five Palestinian boys between the ages of 12 and 16 have gone missing while seeking humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.
Musab Hussein Ziad Alyan, 12; Zain Suhail Said Dahman, 16; Ibrahim Mohammad Mohammad Abu Zaher, 15; Khaled Ramzi Adnan Saleh, 13, and Anas Eid Mahmoud Al-Sayed, 14, went missing between June 24 and August 2 near northern Gaza’s Zikim border crossing.
“Each day, we go back [to the hospitals] when new bodies are brought in,” 16-year-old Dahman’s mother told DCIP. “We have been tracking the bodies from the day he disappeared until now, and he has not been found among them.”
The rights group said the families believe the boys were likely detained by the Israeli military. “Israeli forces are shooting, detaining, and disappearing Palestinian children seeking aid in Gaza,” Ayed Abu Eqtaish, DCIP’s accountability programme director, said in a statement.
“Israeli forces have refused to disclose the numbers, names, and whereabouts of Palestinian children from Gaza in military custody, and these children have had no contact with the outside world,” Abu Eqtaish said.
“We have more than two decades of evidence indicating that Israeli forces torture Palestinian children in military detention. All of these children must be released and reunited with their families immediately.”
15-year-old Ibrahim disappeared on July 17 at the Zikim border area while looking for food. “Ibrahim was like my right-hand man,” Ibrahim’s father said.
Contact your reps to demand answers: https://t.co/qXeLGhS2rN pic.twitter.com/63S67bKcYe
— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) August 21, 2025
