The Israeli military has privately acknowledged that around 70,000 Palestinians were killed during the war in Gaza, with officials telling Israeli journalists that casualty figures released by Gaza’s health ministry are largely accurate, according to local media.
Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted military officials as saying: “We estimate that about 70,000 Gazans were killed in the war, not including the missing.” Public broadcaster Kan 11 attributed the assessment to the Coordinator of Government Affairs in the Territories (COGAT), adding that Israeli authorities are now working to determine how many of the dead were civilians or militants.
On Wednesday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that 71,667 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, with 171,343 injured. The total includes 492 people killed in Israeli strikes since a ceasefire took effect in mid-October. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but regularly publishes detailed casualty lists.
Earlier in the conflict, Israel repeatedly questioned the health ministry’s figures, accusing it of inflating numbers because it operates under Hamas authority.
An IDF spokesperson declined to confirm the information shared with journalists, saying the reports did not reflect official IDF data and that any formal figures would be released only through official channels. The spokesperson also would not say whether the military maintains its own comprehensive death toll.
Despite the lack of public confirmation, senior Israeli officials have referenced similar numbers in private. In an audio recording released last August, former IDF intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva said that 50,000 deaths in Gaza were “necessary,” a threshold the reported toll crossed in March 2025. In September, former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said more than 10 percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million population had been killed or injured, a figure closely aligned with health ministry data at the time.
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