SAEDNEWS: The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israeli regime has killed more innocent civilians than any other actor in 21st-century wars, citing its analysis of 72,063 deaths in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, including thousands of children.
In its article, Haaretz stated that while occupation was once the central issue, “genocide” has now become the defining reality.
According to the report, genocide is a legal term that requires proof. However, it argued that establishing intent presents little difficulty, as members of the Israeli cabinet coalition have explicitly called for genocidal actions.
The newspaper added that even beyond legal classification, the scale of Israeli war crimes in Gaza justifies the use of the term. It pointed to the killing of innocent civilians, the destruction of vital infrastructure, and the systematic deprivation imposed on the population.
It reported that 78% of buildings and infrastructure in Gaza have been destroyed. Starvation was used for months as a weapon against civilians, despite the limited resumption of aid deliveries, and the Israeli military devastated the vast majority of Gaza’s agricultural land.
Citing data from the United Nations, the article stated that Israel reduced Gaza’s water storage capacity by 84%, compounding severe shortages.
The report further detailed widespread looting, torture, and rape of detainees.
Turning to Israeli society, Haaretz wrote that even discussing these crimes remains taboo domestically. It questioned how one could explain that imposing a death sentence on all Gaza residents is morally wrong, or that calls to burn Gaza under the premise that all its inhabitants are guilty represent a catastrophic moral collapse.
In a separate but related analysis, Haaretz examined a list of war victims and reported that of the 72,063 people killed in Gaza, 17,594 were children under the age of 16, including 3,150 infants and toddlers.
The data analysis showed that at least 47% of those killed were women, children, and elderly individuals who did not fight Israeli forces on Oct. 7 or afterward.
In other words, nearly half of the human toll imposed by the Israeli military campaign fell on civilians who took no part in hostilities.
Haaretz concluded that these figures place Israel as the party responsible for killing the highest number of innocent civilians across all wars in the 21st century.
Earlier, Haaretz cited an international study estimating that around 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza have died since the war began on Oct. 7, 2023, either directly due to Israeli attacks or indirectly as a result of the blockade and famine conditions imposed on the territory.
The newspaper stated that this figure makes the Gaza war the deadliest conflict of the 21st century.
The study was conducted by a team of international experts led by Professor Michael Spagat in cooperation with Dr. Khalil Shikaki.
According to the report, the figures released by the Palestinian Health Ministry are lower than the actual death toll on the ground.
The analysis also addressed efforts by Israeli officials to discredit Palestinian casualty data, emphasizing that, contrary to official Israeli narratives, Gaza Health Ministry figures are not only accurate but likely undercount the true scale of deaths.
Meanwhile, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights estimated several weeks ago that the death toll in Gaza could exceed 200,000, based on projections indicating that Gaza’s population has declined by more than 10% due to sustained military assaults.
Stuart Casey-Maslen, head of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, said that by October 2023, Gaza’s population had fallen by over 10%, corresponding to approximately 200,000 deaths.
He added that the figures reported so far do not reflect the full extent of human losses, noting that many victims may remain trapped under rubble and unaccounted for.
A significant population decline, he said, is a serious indicator of the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe. While the estimates require independent verification, if accurate they would indicate a death toll far exceeding officially reported figures.
