IDF confirms some 70,000 Gazans died in war, none from starvation.

[Twiglets1]

Article in The Jerusalem Post:

The IDF, for the first time on Wednesday, confirmed that approximately 70,000 Gazans were killed during the Israel-Hamas War, while disputing the percentage of civilian deaths claimed by the UN and declaring that no healthy persons died from starvation.

While various international groups have claimed that the overwhelming majority of those who died were civilians, the IDF continues to contest that number and has said that around 25,000 were Hamas terrorists. Further, the IDF has presented evidence that, through early 2024 – the period when Hamas was firing large daily rocket salvos – around 13% of their rockets were misfires, leading to the killing of many Palestinians.

There have also been other periods of time where Hamas executed large numbers of Palestinians whom it viewed as political opponents or civilians whom it was trying to prevent from fleeing an area that the IDF said needed to be evacuated. While the IDF said on Thursday that it is working on a fuller evaluation of the breakdown of civilians to combatants and estimates of those killed by Hamas, no Israeli official has provided a set estimate on that to date.

No date was given for when this breakdown will be publicized, suggesting that it will not be in the near future.

Estimates by international organizations and some media have said that as many as around 450 Palestinians have died of starvation, but the IDF on Thursday said these numbers are a mix of fake statistics or include persons who suffered from dangerous health conditions prior to the war.

IDF sources noted cases where they spoke to humanitarian aid officials who claimed that two specific children had died, but the military was able to quickly establish that they were actually still alive.

There were also multiple other cases in which the global media graphically documented children whose bodies appeared contorted and who eventually died, with the military later clarifying that they had serious pre-war health conditions that had already caused their distorted-looking appearance.

The IDF has not given a more detailed, comprehensive counter-claim regarding the list of persons the UN claims starved to death, but is expected to give significant information confidentially to the International Court of Justice on March 12.

More broadly, the IDF has said that UN aid officials in the field have admitted that their headquarters political bosses invented or exaggerated the food insecurity in Gaza in order to pressure Israel into ending the war earlier. IDF officials have also admitted that there was a food insecurity crisis in July-August 2025, but said they acted rapidly enough at the time in increasing the volume of food aid trucks to avoid a starvation crisis.

According to the IDF, throughout the war, 112,000 aid trucks were brought into Gaza, including 1,700,000 tons of food, as well as 1,800,000 tents and tarpaulin covers. During this time, 600,000 children received polio vaccinations.

Currently, 16 field hospitals are operating, and over the course of the war, 9,600 tons of medical items have been brought into Gaza.

During the same period, 5,000 international aid workers entered the Strip, while 42,000 Gazans exited to a third country to receive health treatment or travel using their dual citizenship status.

www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-884905

Translation: "look at the Lancet or other epidemiological figures, the 70k are a massive undercount."

I am utterly and completely DISGUSTED at the propaganda machine that has been screaming "do not believe the figures, the figures are Hamas!" for 2+ years when "the figures" had been shown to be largely reliable every single time before.

For them now to go "oopsie! Guess we sort of did kill 70k+ people - but not to worry: remember those kids had pre-existing conditions. Because CP routinely kills in places like Paris or even Bogota ..." is just beyond the pale!

Meanwhile, in the real world........

I’m disgusted that there was so much propaganda around the issue of famine and all those photos of sick children used to promote the message that thousands of Gazans were dying of starvation when they weren’t. This was promoted by the UN & repeated as though it were fact by many on MN. Food insecurity is one thing, but famine - no, that wasn’t a feature of this war.

The argument that we couldn’t believe the figures since they came from Hamas was a sound one. Hamas were reporting every death as though it were a civilian death when common sense suggested that a good percentage would be Hamas.

With regard to the civilians killed that is a terrible reality of war. Hamas never should have attacked Israel in the first place. All this bloodshed could have been avoided if Hamas had either not started a war in the first place or surrendered as soon as it became clear that none of their allies in the Middle East were coming to their aid in their efforts to kill as many Jews as possible.

All normal people know this. There was never a famine in Gaza. Food shortages, yes. But there were cafes and restaurants open throughout. And enough aid that basic needs were met. The anti- Israeli propaganda is the wildest thing I've seem since Goebbels... especially as Israel were providing aid for the people who had attacked them in the most horrific way. If you can get western leaning leftist supporting the Islamist regime and their proxy's you can see exactly how the holocaust happened.

I mean, if the IDF say so, it must be true.

Right....so how many Hamas fighters were killed?. The pro pallys never seen to have an answer for this. The IDF killed 70 000 civilians and not a single terrorist?

It's one of the most appalling periods in the history of human civilization. And even more appallingly, will only lead to more bloodshed.

Have you seen any images of emaciated adults at all? I haven’t. I’ve only seen images of children that look emaciated. We probably all can remember the same images because they were put on the front pages of newspapers in the UK. But later it emerged that those same children had medical issues.

To be clear, I’m not saying there have been no food shortages in Gaza. There clearly have been and especially in the period July - August 2025 after Israel temporarily & wrongly blocked humanitarian aid. There has also been a lack of access to specialist milk powder & medication & that must have been devastating for the families of children with complex needs.

However, the evidence of our own eyes in addition to the evidence Israel will present to the International Court of Justice does suggest there was no starvation in Gaza amongst the general population (thank God). I think that’s pretty obvious if you look at the population as a whole rather than focus solely on images of very sick children that were cherry picked in order to mislead.

It’s horrible, but it barely makes the top ten even if you multiply the death toll by one hundred and only include wars. It’s very visible though. History is full of horrible things, sadly.

Hamas are solely to blame for starting and continuing the war, hiding amongst and under civilians and civilian infrastructure, using and sacrificing their own people to further the propaganda, keeping the hostages for so long. Such is the Islamist hatred of Jews.
What was the alternative to what Israel did?
One would be a genocide in Gaza, eliminating everyone, but that didn’t happen.
Another to carpet bomb refugee camps, that didn’t happen either.
Another to starve the population into submission, also did not happen.

The people of Gaza have lost everything and gained nothing. They need to chose another path.

Some predictably vile comments on here, minimising the genocide, blaming the innocent civilians, accusing medical staff of lying (they were reporting malnutrition and starvation). I would say I’m shocked when people post things like that but sadly I’m not.

The final number of dead will be much higher, we all know that, and of course Palestinians including children continue to be killed by the IDF every day.

Absolutely… I hope the people of Gaza can choose another path and that future generations can live better lives. Without the dark cloud of Hamas they would have a chance.

Anyone that chooses to believe either IDF or Hamas as reliable sources are deluded.

I wouldn’t dispute malnutrition @MissyB1 especially amongst the most vulnerable- young children.

What I would dispute is the previous allegations of starvation & famine. I haven’t seen any evidence amongst the general population & I’m relieved about that as we all should be.

Agree that neither are unbiased. They seem to widely agree on the number of Palestinian casualties. The more controversial elements are the ratio of militants versus civilians. Also whether or not the Gazan population was deliberately starved.

Equally predictable attempt to shut down any conversation that might picture Israel as anything other than the psychotic sole aggressor.
War is awful, that shouldn’t mean no nuance can be allowed when talking about it.

Agree

This article demonstrates how information on the reality on the ground was being controlled from very early on. Blocked by US ambassador to Jerusalem, Jack Lew, because of "concern about balance" disgusting.
The U.S. embassy in Jerusalem oversaw the language and distribution of most of the cables about Gaza, including those from other embassies in the region.
It's obvious to everyone outside the Israeli government and their supporters bubble who were controlling the narrative and we are now expected to believe the IDF's account?

Meanwhile the Israeli government are in court still trying to block access to international journalists.

https://www.reuters.com/world/early-warning-apocalyptic-wasteland-gaza-blocked-by-us-envoys-israel-2026-01-30/

The UN reported in December that increased food aid allowed in to Gaza following the ceasefire had averted famine but expected in the coming months that 100,000 children will suffer acute malnutrition along with 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/12/1166638

Out of interest, do you also dispute the unprecedented intensity of the bombing in a small and densely populated area, the footage from helicopters flying over areas reduced to rubble, the destruction of hospitals, and the testimony of doctors on, for example, children having to endure amputations without anaesthetic?

Or is it just the lack of food you think is propaganda?

I don't think lack of food is propaganda. I think the idea that Israel wanted to starve Gazans to death was propaganda.

Considering the efforts Hamas (“We love death more than our enemies love life”) have made to integrate civilian and military infrastructure, I’m seriously impressed at how low the IDF have managed to keep casualties.

The question of civilian to combatant ratio is not clear-cut.

https://pspcr.org/:

It's remarkable that Hamas and the IDF agree the figures, yet others (Corbyn for instance) insidt they know better.

That's actually quite a low civilian death toll given the destruction of the infrastructure. I'm saying tvis as clearly a significant percentage of those deaths will be Hamas fighters, and not all of the rest will have been due to eg direct Israeli strikes. Hamas managed to misfire a lot of rockets so those deaths will be included, and they have been killing quite a lot of Gazans recently themselves.

That's a very interesting website I was not aware of until you posted so thank you.

I couldn't actually open the link but found the organisation at www.pcpsr.org/

Agree. Unfortunately human history has been brutal. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of worst atrocities in history.

81% who watched videos still did not believe that Hamas committed atrocities????? Have I read that right? 🤡

I don't understand the view of 'this is all fine because lots of bad things have happened in long distant history unfortunately' - this isn't history, it's happening now and it's truly bizarre that people think it's fine.

Even worse IMO is the view that 'they weren't starving people to death they were just starving them a little bit and it's fine because it was only the ill kids that died'.

Honestly where has people's humanity gone? Hamas and the IDF are both a complete bunch of cunts, The kids caught up in all this did not deserve any of it.