Israeli airstrikes killed 61% civilians, finds study; Gaza’s death toll rises to 18,000

Israel's incessant aerial bombing campaign on Palestine's Gaza since 8 October has killed over 17,000 people. A recent study conducted by Israel has shown that of them, a whopping 60% were civilians. This study comes at a time, when Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel has been facing severe heat from international leaders for the civilian death caused by the Israeli airstrikes and ground offensive in the name of ‘eliminating’ Hamas fighters. 

The study conducted by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, came as Israeli forces fought to consolidate their control of northern Gaza, also bombing the Shejaiya district of Gaza City, while also conducting airstrikes on Rafah, a town on the southern border with Egypt where the Israeli army has told people in Gaza to take shelter.

Haaretz published an analysis by Yagil Levy, a sociology professor at the Open University of Israel, which found that in three earlier campaigns in Gaza, in the period from 2012-22, the ratio of civilian deaths to the total of those killed in airstrikes hovered at about 40%. That ratio declined to 33% in a bombing campaign earlier this year, called Operation Shield and Arrow.

In the first three weeks of the current operation, Swords of Iron, the civilian proportion of total deaths rose to 61%, in what Levy described as “unprecedented killing” for Israeli forces in Gaza. The ratio is significantly higher than the average civilian toll in all the conflicts around the world during the 20th century, in which civilians accounted for about half the dead, according to Levy.

The study confirms an investigation 10 days ago by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, which found Israel was deliberately targeting residential blocks to cause mass civilian casualties in the hope people would turn on their Hamas rulers, reports Guardian. 

A few days ago, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had said that they have killed ‘two Palestinian for every Hamas militant’ in their relentless bombing and intensive ground offensive in Gaza.

IDF spokesperson Jonathan Conricus had said that over 10,000 civilians in Gaza have died, corroborating that Gaza's Health Ministry reports a total death toll not segregating civilians and combatants.

In 2014, during the 50 days of hostilities in Gaza, 2,251 Palestinians were killed, of whom 1,462 were believed to be civilians, according to the United Nations. That equates to a ratio of 1.8 civilians for every non-civilian.

About 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardment since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel stands at 1,147.