Key Takeaways:
- The IDF has positively identified the deaths of 8,900 terrorists who were previously known to Israel.
- A joint +972 Magazine, Guardian, and Local Call article manufactured and inflated civilian casualty numbers, claiming 83% of deaths are civilians.
- The article does not acknowledge that Hamas terrorists embed themselves in the civilian population, disguising themselves as such and making it challenging to determine the exact number of terrorists killed.
A joint +972, Guardian, and Local Call article “reveals” that eighty-three percent of casualties in Gaza since October 7th have been civilians. The shocking headline would be horrifying if true. Except, it’s not.
The concerted effort to smear Israel quickly unravels once the numbers from the investigation are pulled apart and looked at critically.
At the start of the war, the IDF reportedly held a database with an estimated 47,000 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip, which the IDF worked to keep track of those who were successfully targeted. By May 2025, the number of positively identified terrorists stood at 8,900. This number was included within the IDF’s broader estimates of over 20,000 terrorists eliminated at the time.
In May 2025, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health claimed the death toll in Gaza was 53,000. The three news outlets took this (disputed) number and put it next to the known 8,900 terrorist deaths confirmed by Israel. +972, The Guardian, and Local Call presented the remaining 83% of deaths as civilians. In doing so, these outlets effectively fell for Hamas’ propaganda and obscured the reality of guerrilla warfare in Gaza.
The statistic built was void of the most important context: the number represented only terrorists Israel had already confirmed by name and ignored the many thousands still under review or not yet identified. The faulty 83% statistic also only included Hamas and Islamic Jihad, despite other terrorist organizations and independent actors existing in the Strip. In other words, anyone not on Israel’s confirmed terrorist list was automatically counted as a civilian – including unidentified combatants and the thousands of newly recruited members of Hamas, who wouldn’t yet be identified on the IDF’s list.
The IDF too acknowledged the flaws in using Hamas’ casualty figures to determine the success of IDF operations over the course of the war, emphasizing that the claims in the article are not only “false but also reflect a fundamental lack of military understanding.”
Being that terrorists in the Gaza Strip deliberately embed themselves in the civilian population by wearing civilian clothing and don’t walk around with a name tag or identity card, it is impossible to know the exact number of terrorists that have been killed during IDF operations.
As of August 2025, the Hamas-provided casualty number stands at 62,000, while the IDF believes it has targeted over 22,000 terrorist operatives. Despite the flaws in Hamas’ casualty figures – Hamas is well known for routinely inflating the casualty figures, a key element of its propaganda war against Israel – if we are to look at them at face value, the civilian to combatant ratio is an astonishingly low 2:1. The UN estimates that the average civilian to combatant ratio in urban warfare is 9:1. By attempting to stretch the casualty ratio, +972, The Guardian and Local Call seek to warp reality and falsely accuse Israel of committing genocide.
Not only is it an incredibly impressive feat for the IDF to be able to identify terrorists, but it also sheds light on the war the IDF is fighting. While the media attempts to slander the IDF for deliberately targeting civilians, the IDF is working to maintain precision and minimize civilian harm, going so far as to keep track of combatant deaths where possible.
The data undercuts the headline, banking on readers seeing only the flashy, misleading figure rather than engaging with the full picture. This is exactly how +972, The Guardian, and Local Call push a narrative their own reporting can’t back up and turn selected numbers into a supposed indictment of Israel’s conduct in the war.
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