BBC Verify examines the evidence on combatant deaths, as concern grows about the scale of civilian killing.

The toll of at least 30,035 killed, from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, has previously been described as trustworthy by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional emergency director Richard Brennan.

The WHO says the ministry has “good capacity in data collection” and its previous reporting has been credible and “well developed”.

But its overall tally of those killed does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The Gaza authorities’ last demographic breakdown from 29 February indicated more than 70% of those killed had been women and children.

  • dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    42·
    10 months ago

    Out of 30,000 dead Gazans, the IDF says they killed about 10,000 Hamas fighters. That’s terrible performance for such a well trained and well equipped military. It’s almost as if they were just wantonly bombing Gaza with zero concern over collateral damage because it’s a genocide/ethnic cleansing.

    • Arete@lemmy.worldEnglish
      23·
      10 months ago

      A 2:1 civilian to soldier killed ratio is actually pretty much average for urban combat. Mosul and Aleppo were both closer to 3:1. Neither were labelled genocide.

      • maynarkh@feddit.nlEnglish
        11·
        10 months ago

        That said, the amount of murdered civilians vs soldiers is not the deciding factor on whether something is genocide or not. You can massacre a village of a few dozen people and it can be labelled genocide. It’s in the intent.

        • Arete@lemmy.worldEnglish
          14·
          10 months ago

          Well said. Genocide has a few definitions, but all involve the intent for wholesale destruction of an ethnic or religious group.

          In most cases, we look for large population drops of established groups due to murderous actions as a way to infer intent. The systematic killing of 99% of the Vietnamese population living in Cambodia under Pol Pot might be the most clear example. The killing of ~80% of the Tutsi ethnic group in Rwanda is another.

          There are also small-scale examples, such as ISIS killing off ~5000 Iraqi Turkmen. In this case the ethnic group was only targeted in regions ISIS controlled, limiting the damage, but the intent to kill as many as possible was clear.

          How you apply this to Gaza is a personal value judgement right now. Only about 1% of the population has been killed, but there are also statements by some Israeli officials demonstrating intent, and some of the IDF actions are at best cavalier.