The former Israeli army commander’s confirmation that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured in the war in Gaza has vindicated that the figures are close to those provided by Gaza’s health ministry, which Israeli officials have often dismissed as Hamas propaganda, and he asserted that military operations were carried out without resistance from legal advisers.
Herzi Halevi, who stepped down in March after serving as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the first 17 months of the conflict, acknowledged that more than 10 per cent of Gaza’s population had been killed or wounded, a figure aligning with the official toll of 64,718 dead and 163,859 injured issued by Gaza’s health authorities, though many thousands more remain unaccounted for under the rubble., The Guardian reported.
His remarks mark the first time a senior Israeli commander has provided an estimate close to that of the Palestinian ministry, whose figures have been deemed reliable by international humanitarian agencies despite Israel’s repeated efforts to discredit them.
The retired general described the war as one in which Israel abandoned restraint from the outset, suggesting that a tougher approach should have been taken before the Hamas assault of 7 October 2023, which killed around 1,200 people, including 815 Israeli and foreign civilians.
He stressed that the IDF had not been restricted by the military advocate general or other legal advisers, claiming that operational decisions in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East had proceeded without legal obstacles, and he characterised the role of lawyers as focused on defending Israel’s actions abroad rather than constraining them in practice.
His comments come as leaked Israeli intelligence data until May indicated that more than 80 per cent of Palestinian deaths were civilians, underlining the scale of humanitarian devastation in Gaza, where at least 40 more people were reported killed in air strikes on Friday, mostly in and around Gaza City.
The situation remains dire as many residents have been unable or unwilling to heed repeated displacement orders, with some of the latest victims believed to be those who could not move south due to the absence of shelter or adequate facilities.
Human rights advocates in Israel argued that Halevi’s statements confirm military lawyers have effectively acted as rubber stamps rather than independent legal constraints, while reports in the Israeli press suggested his successor, Eyal Zamir, has also disregarded legal advice on displacement orders.