Secret Data Contradicts IDF’s Gaza Death Toll: 83% of the Dead Are Civilians

According to a joint investigation by "+972 Magazine", "Local Call", and "The Guardian", leaked classified database figures show the IDF internally assessed it had killed about 8,900 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, while Hamas data put the total death toll in Gaza at around 53,000.

Publicly released Israeli figures shifted inconsistently, from 10,000 in November 2023 to 20,000 in January 2025.

Retired Major General Yitzhak Brik was quoted saying that higher body counts were portrayed as military success, fueling a culture of “lies and inflation.” He called the reporting of terrorists deaths “one of the most serious deceptions in Israel’s history,” adding that soldiers tasked with body identification told him that most of those counted as terrorists were actually civilians.

In July, an IDF spokesperson told Local Call that militant casualty figures were based on complex intelligence assessments and cross-checked sources — a statement the outlets noted did not deny the leaked numbers. Three weeks later, the IDF gave The Guardian a revised response, rejecting the findings: “The figures presented in the article are incorrect and do not reflect the data available in IDF systems… Assessments are conducted continuously using BDA methodologies and cross-referencing multiple sources, including documents originating from Gaza terror organizations.”