Statistics - the HAMAS : Israel War

Statistics vs. lies

In association with the current HAMAS vs. Israel Al-Aqsa war (2023-2026), the following statistics have been presented:

* 20,000 children killed by Israel since 7 October 2023. Source: Save the Children, 6 September 2025, based on statistics supplied by the Government (HAMAS) Media Office, Gaza. 

* Israel kills 65,000 Palestinians since 7 October 2023, 165,7000 injured. Source: PBS News, 17 September 2025, based on statistic provided by Gaza's (HAMAS) Health Ministry.

* 50,000 HAMAS combatants killed in war with Israel since 7 October 2023. Source: In a 5 February 2026 press release, the HAMAS Ministry of Social Development stated it will pay stipends to around 50,000 widows of fighters killed by the Israeli Defence Forces in the war it initiated on 7 October 2023, and had already made over 19,000 payments as of 5 February 2026. 

Source: X.com, 9 February 2026.

* Over 960 Israeli soldiers killed since 7 October 2023. Source: Israel Defence Forces.

* 1,200 Israelis killed and 5,000 injured due to the 7 October 2023 HAMAS attacks. Source: Government of Israel. 

* 14,000 HAMAS combatants killed during the first 6 months of the war with Israel. Source: Government of Israel. 

 

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References

Claim 43: Israel has killed more than 30,000 innocent Palestinians in the first since months since 7 October 2023, United Nations Watch, n.d. NB: Text and references reproduced below. 

Gaza (Occupied Palestinian Territory: 20,000 children killed in 23 months of war - more than one child killed every hour, Save the Children, 6 September 2025. 

Frankel, Julia and Samy Magdy, Israeli troops press forward into Gaza City as Palestinian deal toll passes 65,000, PBS News, 17 September 2025.

HAMAS, Widows of the Al-Aqsa Flood War [Press release], The Ministry of Social Development - Gaza, 5 February 2026. 

HAMAS announces 500 shekel payment to tens of thousands of 'Al-Aqsa Flood' widows, Jusoor News International, 5 February 2026. 

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* Comments for the following article: Claim 43: Israel has killed more than 30,000 innocent Palestinians in the first since months since 7 October 2023, United Nations Watch, n.d. 

Hamas-Run Gaza Health Ministry Admits to Flaws in Casualty Data, FDD (April 9, 2024), https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/04/09/hamas-run-gaza-health-ministry-admits-to-flaws-in-casualty-data/. Text: Accusing Israel of killing more than 30,000 innocent civilians in Gaza or claiming that this number includes mostly women and children repeats lies from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas is a terrorist organization which is inherently unreliable and has an interest in inflating casualty numbers to increase international pressure on Israel for a ceasefire. These numbers have never been independently verified. Hamas itself recently admitted that data was incomplete for 11,371 of the 33,091 fatalities it claims.

Dan Williams, Israel plans to adjust Gaza war tactics after killing of aid workers, Reuters (April 5, 2024), https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-signals-probe-lethal-strike-gaza-aid-convoy-take-weeks-2024-04-04/. Text: The Hamas number does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Hamas has acknowledged that 6,000 of the dead are its fighters.

Dr. Eado Hecht, The Gaza Terror Offensive – 9 March – 14 April 2024, BESA Center (April 14, 2024), https://besacenter.org/the-gaza-terror-offensive-october-7-8-2023/. Text: However, according to the IDF, the number of combatants killed during the first six months of the war is far higher, around 14,000.

LTC Geoffrey S. Corn, Those Who Criticize Israel For Using Indiscriminate or Excessive Force in Gaza Are Wrong, JINSA (April 15, 2024), https://jinsa.org/criticizing-israel-for-indiscriminate-force-is-wrong/. Text: This which translates to a civilian to combatant ratio of less than 2 civilians for every 1 combatant killed.

@COLRICHARDKEMP, Twitter (January 17, 2024, 8:51 PM), https://twitter.com/COLRICHARDKEMP/status/1747693189946106183?lang=en; Ninety-Percent of War-Time Casualties Are Civilians, Speakers Stress, Pressing Security Council to Fulfil Responsibility, Protect Innocent People in Conflicts, UN (May 25, 2022), https://press.un.org/en/2022/sc14904.doc.htm. Text: While all civilian casualties in war are tragic, this ratio is better than in other recent urban conflicts where the average is 1 combatant to 9 civilians according to the UN.

Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, IDF: One in five Gaza rockets misfires, kills Palestinians, Jerusalem Post (October 21, 2023), https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-769509. Text: The Hamas number includes fatalities caused by its own misfired rockets, thus wrongly blaming those deaths on Israel. According to the IDF, one in five Gaza rockets misfires, killing Palestinians.

Gaza hospital blast was caused by misfired rocket, says European military source, France 24 (October 20, 2023), https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20231020-gaza-hospital-blast-was-caused-by-misfired-rocket-says-european-military-source. Text: Indeed, although Israel was originally blamed for the October 17^th strike on the Al-Ahli Hospital, it was quickly determined that the casualties were caused by a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket.

Israel says Hamas deployed more than 170 children to the front lines while terrorists ‘hide in shelters,’ New York Post (January 3, 2024), https://nypost.com/2024/01/03/news/israel-says-hamas-recruits-children-to-the-frontlines-to-deliver-messages-and-ammunition/; Hamas and Islamic Jihad Use Children for Terrorist Activities and Incitement, IDF (January 3, 2024), https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/idf-press-releases-regarding-the-hamas-israel-war/january-24-pr/hamas-and-islamic-jihad-use-children-for-terrorist-activities-and-incitement/#:~:text=In%20routine%20times%2C%20Hamas%20operates,training%20for%20Hamas’%20military%20wing. Text: The Hamas number fails to account for the terrorist group’s own recruitment and use of child soldiers. The death of any child in war is heartbreaking, but if a child under the age of 18 is killed while participating in hostilities, that child is considered a combatant and, therefore, a lawful military target.

Gabriel Epstein, How Hamas Manipulates Gaza Fatality Numbers, Washington Institute (January 2024), https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/media/7168?disposition=inline. Text: The Hamas data has been heavily criticized on several grounds, including that the data is based, not only on information from hospitals and morgues, but also on unspecified “reliable media sources” and self-reporting from Gazans through a Google form

Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel, Flash Update #75, OCHA (December 21, 2023), https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-75. Text: Even the UN’s OCHA acknowledged in December that this Hamas’s “methodology is unknown.”

Id. Abraham Wyner, How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers, Tablet (March 7, 2024), https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/how-gaza-health-ministry-fakes-casualty-numbers; @Aizenberg55, Twitter (April 6, 2024, 10:20 AM), https://twitter.com/Aizenberg55/status/1776510194383466888. See also Tom Simpson, Lewi Stone, and Gregory Rose, Statistically Impossible: A Critical Analysis of Hamas’s Women and Children Casualty Figures, Fathom (March 2024), https://fathomjournal.org/statistically-impossible-a-critical-analysis-of-hamass-women-and-children-casualty-figures/ (pointing our statistical absurdities in the data provided by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry). Text: Hamas data consistently underreports adult male civilian fatalities even though adult men constitute 25% of the Gaza population. This is clear from Hamas’s insistence that 70% of the dead are women and children, while at the same time it admits that 20% (~6,000 fatalities) are its fighters, which means that only the remaining 10% can be adult male civilians—significantly less than it should be proportionally.

@Aizenberg55, Twitter (December 4, 2023, 9:11 PM), https://twitter.com/Aizenberg55/status/1731753075893850323. Text: The underreporting of adult male deaths is also clear in the Flash Updates published by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which show unrealistically low numbers of men being killed, e.g., 216 new fatalities on October 31, 2024, comprised of 210 women and children, and only six men.

@Aizenberg55, Twitter (December 4, 2023, 9:11 PM), https://twitter.com/Aizenberg55/status/1731753073997910139. Text: These flash updates also contain other inconsistencies, such as the total number of women and children claimed killed exceeding the total number of deaths reported altogether for a particular day.

Ari Blaff, United Nations halves estimate of women and children killed in Gaza, National Post (May 12, 2024), https://nationalpost.com/news/world/israel-middle-east/united-nations-halves-estimate-of-women-and-children-killed-in-gaza. Text: Notably, on May 8, 2024, OCHA significantly reduced its Gaza casualty numbers, cutting the numbers of women and children killed by nearly 50%—from 9,500 women to under 5,000 and from 14,500 children to 8,000.

 

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