In Gaza, the IDF's own figures show that 87% of those killed were civilians.

Question

By other data, not the least of which is comes from non-government Ukrainian sources such as Artem Dmytruk. Meanwhile in Gaza, the IDF's own figures show that 87% of those killed were civilians. It's also interesting that you fail to acknowledge Ukrainian attacks on civilians with drones.

Answer 1

This claim is false. The actual figure is 83%. A joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call found that of the 53,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks, as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry toll in May of 2025 (United Nations), "fighters named in the Israeli military intelligence database accounted for just 17% of the total." This indicates that 83% of the dead were civilians. Both the Israeli military and the United Nations consider the Gaza health ministry toll reliable (Source: The Guardian and United Nations). This information came directly from a Israeli military database and was reported on by The Guardian, which is considered a reputable source, albeit with a slightly left-leaning bias. +972 Magazine and Local Call, both Israeli-based news organizations, corroborated these statistics. Nonetheless, other reliable organizations report the same statistic, including Action on Armed Violence, a London-based non-governmental organization. 

It is important to note that this death toll is outdated; the current Palestinian death toll stands at approximately 67,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, as reported by Reuters and NPR.

Comments

This is a very good and thorough response. I find the note at the end very helpful but I would recommend mentioning how outdated the death toll was and how with genocide the death tolls aren’t always correct.

Answer 2

This claim is not entirely true. Though the death rates of civilians in Gaza are still staggering, the stat of 87% is slightly exaggerated. These claims refer to an article published by The Guardian and +972 Magazine in August 2025, which showed leaked IDF data of the Gaza civilian death toll being 83%. Israel disputes this reports findings, but it does not give specifics of the civilian death toll rates in Gaza. According to the most recent article published by The Guardian regarding civilian death tolls in Gaza, 15 out of every 16 people killed in Gaza by the Israelis are civilians. This article was published in September of 2025. With all this being said, it is important to note that, when it comes to genocide, numbers can be deflated or inflated for media purposes and engagement. 

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/19/civilians-made-up-15-of-every-16-people-israel-killed-in-gaza-since-march-data-suggests

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/22/first-thing-israeli-military-own-data-83-per-cent-civilian-death-rate-gaza

Comments

I think this is a relatively good analysis. Do you have any other sources than The Guardian? I think this is an extremely hot issue right now, and I think there needs to be more input on these numbers by multiple sources. The UN Watch has strong opinions about this data, which I think is an important reminder we need to be looking at multiple sources.

https://unwatch.org/item7_response/claim-43-israel-has-killed-more-than-30000-innocent-palestinians-since-october-7th/

Answer 3

While this claim is technically not true, it is not wildly inaccurate. The claim made was that the IDF's own statistics say that 87% of the people who were killed are civilians. While the correct statistics aren't that far off, they are still different from what the original claim states, so I'm labeling this claim as "Exaggerated/Misleading." According to The Guardian, the actual number is 83%. This shows that the original claim was slightly off-base which shows that the original claim exaggerates the real statistics. AlJazeera News which is a Middle Eastern based media group backed up the claims by The Guardian. The Guardians investigation was actually a joint investigation with Local Call and +972 Magazine. +972 magazine is an independent magazine that features both Palestinian and Israeli journalists. Yuval Abraham, who is an Israeli investigative journalist is the writer who wrote the +972 Magazine piece that is linked above. In the piece, he says "Since early on in the war, Israeli officials have sought to dismiss accusations of wanton killing in Gaza as the Palestinian death toll rapidly stacked up." The fact that an Israeli is bringing up the fact that the Israeli government is fudging the number on death tolls shows the unbiased nature of the article. This Guardian piece is from August 21st of 2025, meaning that the death toll very well may be outdated, but since this is the most recent study we have, which includes a joint investigation from three seperate publications, these are the most reliable statistics we have. All in all, the claim that the IDF's own figures show that 87% of people killed were civilians was slightly exaggerated, because in reality, the real percentage is 83%. While the claim was correct in highlighting the fact that civilian deaths and atrocities have been committed by the IDF, I am ultimately rating the claim "Exaggerated/Misleading" due to the incorrect nature of the percentage.