Ex-IDF Chief Admits Over 200,000 Palestinians Killed or Injured in Gaza

September 14, 2025 | 05:55 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed or wounded more than 200,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2022, according to a startling admission by former Israeli military chief Herzi Halevi.

His remarks, captured in a recording published by the news site Ynet and reported by Al Arabiya on Saturday, mark one of the first times a senior Israeli figure has cited numbers close to those released by Gaza’s Health Ministry.

With Gaza’s population at roughly 2.2 million, Halevi’s figure suggests that nearly 10 percent of residents have been killed or injured. Official data from Gaza’s Health Ministry puts the toll since October 7, 2023, at 64,718 dead and 163,859 injured.

Though Israel has long dismissed the ministry’s statistics as Hamas propaganda, international humanitarian groups, including the United Nations, regard them as credible.

Leaked Israeli military intelligence obtained by The Guardian further supports this, showing that up to May 2024, 80 percent of those killed were civilians.

“This isn’t a gentle war. We took the gloves off from the first minute. Sadly not earlier,” Halevi told residents of the Ein HaBesor moshav (agricultural cooperative).

Halevi, who led Israel’s Gaza campaign for its first 17 months before stepping down in March, stressed that legal advice never restricted his decisions.

“Not once has anyone restricted me. Not once. Not the military AG [advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi] who, by the way, hasn’t the authority to restrict me,” he said, referring to advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi.

He went on to describe the role of military legal advisers as primarily defending the legality of operations abroad.“There are legal advisers who say, ‘We will know how to defend this legally in the world,’ and this is very important for the state of Israel,” Halevi noted, as reported by Egypt Today.

Israeli officials have often claimed that military lawyers are deeply involved in operational planning, but rights advocates argue otherwise. Prominent human rights lawyer Michael Sfard responded that Halevi’s comments reinforce the view that legal advisors serve mainly as a “rubber stamp.”

Earlier this week, Haaretz reported that Halevi’s successor, Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, also disregarded legal advice from Tomer-Yerushalmi.

Escalating War and Humanitarian Collapse

Halevi’s admission comes as Israel intensifies strikes on Gaza City, home to nearly half of the enclave’s 2.2 million residents. The latest wave of attacks has leveled residential towers and forced civilians to flee toward the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza.

Israel’s campaign has left much of the strip in ruins, destroying homes, hospitals, and essential infrastructure. Civilians have also been targeted near aid distribution sites run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supported by both the United States and Israel.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 2,484 people have been killed and 18,117 injured since late May while attempting to access humanitarian aid.

The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. In August, a UN-backed report formally declared a famine in Gaza. Since then, 420 people, including 145 children, have reportedly died from starvation or malnutrition, amid Israel’s ongoing blockade of food and aid supplies.

Overall, more than 64,800 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Gaza now faces both mass civilian casualties and the looming threat of widespread famine, while Israel confronts genocide charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

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