Six months of war in Gaza, by the numbers

604 IDF soldiers and security members killed, 3,193 wounded. Over 12,200 rockets and other projectiles have been fired into Israel, and some 13,000 Hamas terrorists eliminated.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

At the six-month mark of the Israel-Hamas war Sunday, the IDF released a by-the-numbers summary of the progress of the war.

A total of 604 IDF soldiers and security members have been killed since Hamas surprised Israel by invading Gazan envelope communities and a dance rave on the border, massacred 1,200 people and took 253 hostages, including some they first murdered.

Over half – 344 – were killed on October 7 itself; the rest have died in the ground incursion into Gaza. Forty-one of them were killed by friendly fire and military accidents.

Nearly 3,200 soldiers have been injured, 497 of them seriously. Of about 10,500 who were “exposed to a traumatic event and developed [psychological] symptoms,” some 18%, or 1,890, did not return to the battlefield.

Since October 7, over 12,200 rockets, mortars, anti-tank grenades and other aerial projectiles have been fired into Israel. Three quarters (9,100) have been launched from Gaza, a third of them on October 7 alone.

Hezbollah has fired about 3,100 from Lebanon and 35 from Syria, killing 14 IDF soldiers and eight civilians.

In contrast to other operations, the IDF has refrained from reporting the percentage shot down by the Iron Dome defense system.

Israel’s air force has played a major role in the war, attacking roughly 32,000 targets in Gaza and 4,700 in Lebanon. Between the IDF’s aerial and ground assaults, the IDF estimates that it has eliminated approximately 12,000 terrorists in Gaza and some 1,000 of the nearly 3,000 who invaded Israel during the surprise attack.

More than 330 Hezbollah and other terrorists have been in killed Lebanon, including 30 commanders.

The IDF has also said that at least an equal number have been wounded to the point that they have not returned to action, and that they have taken an unspecified number as prisoner to Israel, believed to be a few thousand.

Hamas has told the world that Israel has killed 33,137 people in the coastal enclave. The terrorist organization does not without differentiate between civilians and terrorists, nor admit to casualties from rockets launched at Israel that fall short inside the Strip.

Even if its number is taken at face value, this would mean that the number of non-combatants to combatants Israel has killed is less than 2 to 1, a figure that is considered more than acceptable during wartime by every army in the world.

The IDF has also targeted terrorists in Judea and Samaria, killing 420 and arresting more than 3,700 wanted Palestinians, just under half of them belonging to Hamas.

Even though Hamas steals much of the humanitarian aid brought into Gaza, prolonging the war, according to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, as of the end of March 252,585 tons of food has been allowed into the coastal enclave, as well as 19,805 tons of medical equipment.

Despite angering many Israelis who believe that humanitarian aid should only be supplied if Hamas acts in a humanitarian way and releases the 134 live and dead hostages it is still holding, these numbers are set to rise as Israel announced Friday that it will be allowing aid to be brought in through three more entry points.

According to the Education Ministry, the cost of the war to the children on the home front has been particularly high, as so many were evacuated from their homes in both the north and the south for their own protection.

Of about 250,000 residents sent to hotels, guest houses and other facilities outside of rocket range, some 40% have still not returned home, according to the National Insurance Institute.

Of them, almost 48,000 are schoolchildren, 31,000 from the South and almost 17,000 from the North.

For the vast majority, this school year is a lost one, adding academic gaps to the psychological, familial and social stresses they have been subjected to, and which will affect them for a long time to come.

The war in Gaza is not yet over, with five Hamas brigades of 24 remaining intact, four of them in Rafah. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that without destroying them as well, Israel cannot declare victory.

In addition, possible war still looms with Hezbollah. Efforts to make Lebanon enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1701 to push the terror group that is part of its government away from Israel’s border to beyond the Litani River, out of anti-tank missile range if not rocket range, have so far been unsuccessful, and Israel has warned that its patience is running out.

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