TEHRAN – Date by the Israeli military reveals 83% of Gaza deaths are civilians, contradicting official claims.

A joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has uncovered that the vast majority of people killed in the U.S.-backed Gaza genocide - 83% - have been civilians, according to the Israeli occupation regime’s own classified intelligence data. 

The investigation challenges nearly two years of public claims by Israeli officials who have strongly stated that most of those killed were resistance fighters. No evidence has ever emerged from the occupation regime to back up its allegation. 

An Israeli military database uncovered during the investigation indicates that, as of May 2025, intelligence sources listed 8,900 identified fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as either dead or “probably dead”. The use of the term “probably dead” introduces additional uncertainty.

At the same time, Gaza’s health ministry reported a total death toll of around 53,000 people. If the Israeli regime’s own count of 8,900 resistance fighters is accurate, that means more than 44,000 of the dead were civilians, approximately five out of every six people killed.

This level of civilian death is extremely high for any modern war. According to Therese Pettersson from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), which tracks civilian casualties globally, the civilian death rate in Gaza is higher than nearly every other major war in modern history. 

The occupation’s military did not deny the existence of the classified database when asked by +972 Magazine and Local Call. 

The Guardian says it received a vague response that the Israeli military had decided to “rephrase” their previous statement. 

However, the Israeli military has previously acknowledged that the Gaza health ministry’s casualty figures, though frequently dismissed publicly by Israeli politicians, are treated as reliable for operational planning.

According to the investigation, the Israeli military uses this classified database, compiled from documents seized in Gaza, as its most accurate measure of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighter deaths. 

The secret database includes 47,653 people identified as active in the armed wings of both resistance movements. Still, only 8,900 were confirmed or presumed dead by May.

Despite this, Israeli officials have repeatedly claimed that 20,000 resistance fighters have been killed and have often presented a 1:1 ratio of civilian to combatant deaths. 

However, analysts and sources familiar with the data say those numbers are misleading and often inflated. In some cases, Israeli commanders allowed soldiers to report any unidentified person killed in Gaza as an armed member of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad without evidence. 

According to one intelligence source, “People are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their death.”

Former Israeli general Itzhak Brik, who once advised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, strongly criticized the government’s handling of the genocidal war and the misinformation being spread. 

Brik said soldiers on the ground know the truth that most of those killed are civilians, and he called the casualty numbers released to the public “one big bluff”. 

Further doubts about the Israeli regime’s claims come from Palestinian sources. By the end of 2024, estimates shared with Palestinian analyst Muhammad Shehada suggested only about 6,500 members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad had died. “Israel expands the boundaries so they can define every single person in Gaza as Hamas,” Shehada said, describing the strategy as a justification for “killing in the moment” with little regard for long-term outcomes.

Even though much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble and tens of thousands have died, the Israeli military still considers nearly 40,000 identified fighters to be alive, according to its own database. This undermines the suggestion that the stated goal of dismantling the armed Palestinian resistance is close.

The civilian toll is likely to have grown even worse since May. The occupation regime’s military has targeted so-called food distribution centers and taken control of UN humanitarian aid efforts to use starvation as “a weapon of war”. A considerable number of civilians have been killed while trying to get food or have perished as a result of hunger. 

Meanwhile, civilians already displaced into just 20% of Gaza’s territory have been ordered to evacuate again as the regime prepares for further ground operations. 

Numerous occupation soldiers spoke anonymously about the regime’s military approach to targeting in Gaza. One stationed in Rafah said his unit established an imaginary line in the sand. Anyone who crossed it was shot without warning, including children and unarmed women. “Nobody aimed for their legs,” he told the Guardian. “We shot to kill”. 

The investigation supports the arguments of many military experts that the situation on the ground contradicts the narrative that the Israeli war on Gaza is targeting resistance fighters but amounts to genocide to wipe out the civilian population.