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The Israeli Cost of the War in Gaza
A mourner holds an Israeli flag, ahead of the funeral of Israeli soldier Sergeant Maayan Baruch Pearlstein, who was killed amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Misgav, Israel, June 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Florion Goga
Gwyne Dyer, a widely syndicated British-Canadian columnist, who describes himself as a military historian knowledgeable about the Middle East, recently compared the number of civilian casualties in Gaza with the number of civilians killed in Ukraine from the ongoing Russian invasion. Dyer claims that about four times as many civilians have died in Gaza in about half the time.
Dyer’s comparison is like comparing apples and oranges. The war in Ukraine is a conventional war fought by uniformed soldiers from Russia (the attacker) and Ukraine. Ukrainian civilians die, or are injured, when the Russians aim their artillery, rockets, and drones at civilian targets, such as apartment buildings and markets. There are no Ukrainian military personnel systematically shooting at the Russians from civilian infrastructure.
In Gaza, it is the opposite. Hamas (the attacker) has weaponized the deaths and injuries of its own people by making it impossible to distinguish between combatants and civilians, and by placing and using weapons in civilian homes, in schools, and in hospitals. All of these are war crimes.
Nothing emphasizes the disregard by Hamas for the welfare of ordinary Palestinians more than the 500 kilometers of tunnels built over 18 years to protect Hamas combatants and weapons, not civilians. (Of course, the tunnels also hide the Hamas hostages, also a war crime.). Recently, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri played down the significance of Gaza casualties, saying, “Our women’s wombs will produce many more babies — 50,000 were born in Gaza during the war.”
Dyer, like the vast majority of the world’s news commentators, uses information on casualties provided by Hamas, a genocidal Islamist terrorist organization that has tyrannized the people of Gaza for the past 18 years.
Why should the numbers provided by Hamas (the Gaza Health Ministry), an organization that is against all progressive societal norms, including; a free press, gender equality, LGBQT+ rights, and free democratic elections — and which have proven to be false in the past — be taken at face value?
In fact, a detailed analysis of Hamas casualty reports by Andrew Fox, identifies errors and questionable counting by Hamas.
For example, the numbers may include natural deaths, and deaths from before the war started. And, of course, the numbers never mention how many were Hamas combatants. Yet, more than 90% of articles on Gaza in major English language news outlets accept and repeat the information Hamas provides.
The articles on Gaza never mention Hamas’ human shield strategy in Gaza. This means that Hamas is essentially erased as an active party in the conflict, instead placing full blame for civilian casualties on Israel. It is as if Israeli soldiers are not fighting a war, they just shoot unarmed civilians.
Looking back at the Gwynne Dyer article that I mentioned at the outset, there is one statistic missing. There is no mention of Israeli military casualties in Gaza.
I scan the news often, every day, and sometimes several times a day. I glance at the news emanating from my own country, Canada, also the US, and the UK, and of course the news from Israeli outlets. (A number of Canadian news sources, especially the Toronto Star and CBC, are consistently biased and negative when it comes to Israel.)
IDF casualties are always mentioned in the Israeli news, always by name and, sadly, quite often. They are usually a result of IEDs (improvised explosive devices), booby-trapped buildings (so many buildings in the Gazan city of Rafah have been booby-trapped), and snipers. IDF casualties in Gaza almost never come up in the reports published outside Israel.
IDF casualty statistics are easy to find since IDF casualties are published online and updated continuously. Excluding the hundreds of soldiers killed and thousands wounded in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, 435 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 2,740 wounded in Gaza thus far.
All civilian deaths and injuries in war are terrible and it is heartbreaking to read about the toll in Gaza, especially when it comes to children. The truth is, however, that Israel is fighting a war in Gaza against Hamas, the government of Gaza. Hamas is intentionally hiding among the civilian population of Gaza in order to maximize Palestinian civilian casualties. It is Hamas, not Israel, that is guilty of war crimes.
When David Baddiel wrote Jews Don’t Count (2021), he was trying to make the point that when it comes to racism and identity politics, Jews and antisemitism are usually not included. He was referring to live Jews. When Dara Horn wrote People Love Dead Jews (2021), she was referring to topics such as the global focus on the story of Anne Frank. It turns out that people don’t love dead Jews. They don’t even count them.
Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.
The post The Israeli Cost of the War in Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.