Deported Irish woman returns home from Israel
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Irish Examiner
11 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Revealed: Israeli military's own data indicates civilian death rate of 83% in Gaza war
Figures from a classified Israeli military intelligence database indicate five out of six Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza have been civilians, an extreme rate of slaughter rarely matched in recent decades of warfare. As of May, 19 months into the war, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 named fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or 'probably dead', a joint investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has found. At that time 53,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli attacks, according to health authorities in Gaza, a toll that included combatants and civilians. Fighters named in the Israeli military intelligence database accounted for just 17% of the total, which indicates that 83% of the dead were civilians. That apparent ratio of civilians to combatants among the dead is extremely high for modern warfare, even compared with conflicts notorious for indiscriminate killing, including the Syrian and Sudanese civil wars. 'That proportion of civilians among those killed would be unusually high, particularly as it has been going on for such a long time,' said Therése Pettersson from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, which tracks civilian casualties worldwide. 'If you single out a particular city or battle in another conflict, you could find similar rates, but very rarely overall.' 8,900 — Named fighters listed as dead or 'probably dead' in Israeli database as of May 2025 In global conflicts tracked by UCDP since 1989, civilians made up a greater proportion of the dead only in Srebenica – although not the Bosnian war overall – in the Rwandan genocide, and during the Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022, Pettersson said. Palestinians check the destruction after Israeli military strikes in a tent camp for displaced people near Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi) Many genocide scholars, lawyers and human rights activists, including Israeli academics and campaign groups, say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing the mass killing of civilians and imposed starvation. The Israeli military did not dispute the existence of the database or dispute the data on Hamas and PIJ deaths when approached for comment by Local Call and +972 Magazine. When the Guardian asked for comment on the same data, a spokesperson said they had decided to 'rephrase' their response. A brief statement sent to the Guardian did not directly address questions about the military intelligence database. It said 'figures presented in the article are incorrect', without specifying which data the Israeli military disputed. It also said the numbers 'do not reflect the data available in the IDF's systems', without detailing which systems. A spokesperson did not immediately respond when asked why the military had given different responses to questions about a single set of data. The database names 47,653 Palestinians considered active in the military wings of Hamas and PIJ. It is based on apparent internal documents from the groups seized in Gaza, which have not been viewed or verified by the Guardian. Multiple intelligence sources familiar with the database said the military viewed it as the only authoritative tally of militant casualties. The military also considers the Gaza health ministry toll reliable, Local Call has reported, and the former head of military intelligence appeared to cite it recently, even though Israeli politicians regularly dismiss the numbers as propaganda. 52,928 — Gaza health ministry's overall death toll as of 14 May 2025 Both databases may underestimate casualty numbers. The Gaza ministry of health lists only people whose bodies have been recovered, not the thousands buried under rubble. Israeli military intelligence are not aware of all militant deaths or all new recruits. But the databases are the ones used by Israeli officers for war planning. Israeli politicians and generals have variously put the number of militants killed as high as 20,000, or claimed a civilian-to-combatant ratio as low as 1:1. The higher totals cited by Israeli officials may include civilians with Hamas links, such as government administrators and police, even though international law prohibits targeting people not engaged in combat. They probably also include Palestinians with no Hamas connections. Israel's southern command allowed soldiers to report people killed in Gaza as militant casualties without identification or verification. An Israeli soldier stands on the top of a tank parked on an area near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Maya Levin) 'People are promoted to the rank of terrorist after their death,' said one intelligence source who accompanied forces on the ground. 'If I had listened to the brigade, I would have come to the conclusion that we had killed 200% of Hamas operatives in the area.' Itzhak Brik, a retired general, said serving Israeli soldiers were aware that politicians exaggerated the Hamas toll. Brik advised the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the start of the war and is now among his most strident critics. 'There is absolutely no connection between the numbers that are announced and what is actually happening. It is just one big bluff,' he said. Brik commanded Israel's military colleges, and said he kept in touch with serving officers. He described meeting soldiers from a unit identifying Palestinians killed in Gaza, who told him 'most of them' were civilians. Even though much of Gaza has been reduced to ruins and tens of thousands of people killed, the classified database lists nearly 40,000 people considered by the army to be militants and still alive. This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP) Casualty estimates from Hamas and PIJ members also indicated Israeli officials were inflating the militant toll in public statements, said Muhammad Shehada, a Palestinian analyst. By December 2024 an estimated 6,500 people from the military and political wings of both groups had been killed, members told him. 'Israel expands the boundaries so they can define every single person in Gaza as Hamas,' he said. 'All of it is killing in the moment for tactical purposes that have nothing to do with extinguishing a threat.' The ratio of civilian casualties among the dead may have increased further since May, when Israel tried to replace UN and humanitarian organisations that had fed Palestinians throughout the war. Israeli forces have killed hundreds of people trying to get food from distribution centres in military exclusion zones. Now starving survivors, already forced into just 20% of the territory, have been ordered to leave the north as Israel prepares for another ground operation that is likely to have catastrophic consequences for civilians. Palestinians mourn over the bodies of people killed either by Israeli military strikes or while trying to reach aid trucks, outside Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi) The scale of the killing was partly owing to the nature of the conflict, said Mary Kaldor, professor emeritus at the LSE, director of the Conflict Research Programme and author of New Wars, an influential book about warfare in the post-cold-war era. International humanitarian law was developed to protect civilians in conventional wars, in which states deploy troops to face each other on the battlefield. This is still largely the model for Russia's war in Ukraine. In Gaza Israel is fighting Hamas militants in densely populated cities, and has set rules of engagement that allow its forces to kill large numbers of civilians in strikes on even low-ranking militants. 'In Gaza we are talking about a campaign of targeted assassinations, really, rather than battles, and they are carried out with no concern for civilians,' Kaldor said. This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the northern reaches of Gaza City and Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP) The ratio of civilians among the dead in Gaza was more comparable to recent wars in Sudan, Yemen, Uganda and Syria, where much of the violence had been directed against civilians, she said. 'These are wars where the armed groups tend to avoid battle. They don't want to fight each other, they want to control territory and they do that by killing civilians,. 'Maybe that is the same with Israel, and this is a model of war [in Gaza] that is about dominating a population and controlling land. Maybe the objective always was forced displacement.' Israel's government says the war is one of self-defence after the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people. But political and military leaders regularly use genocidal rhetoric. The general who led military intelligence when the war began has said 50 Palestinians must die for every person killed that day, adding that 'it does not matter now if they are children'. Aharon Haliva, who stepped down in April 2024, said mass killing in Gaza was 'necessary' as a 'message to future generations' of Palestinians, in recordings broadcast on Israeli TV this month. Palestinians mourn over the body of Ibrahim al-Maghribi, 19, who was killed while trying to reach aid trucks, before his funeral outside Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi) Many Israeli soldiers have testified that all Palestinians are treated as targets in Gaza. One stationed in Rafah this year said his unit had created an 'imaginary line' in the sand and fired at anyone who crossed it, including twice at children and once at a woman. They shot to kill, not to warn, he said. 'Nobody aimed for their legs'. Neta Crawford, a professor of international relations at Oxford University and co-founder of the Costs of War project, said Israeli tactics marked a 'worrisome' abandonment of decades of practices developed to protect civilians. In the 1970s public revulsion about American massacres in Vietnam forced western militaries to shift how they fought. New policies were imperfectly implemented but reflected a focus on limiting harm to civilians that no longer appeared to be part of Israel's military calculus, she said. 'They say they're using the same kinds of procedures for civilian casualty estimation and mitigation as states like the United States. But if you look at these casualty rates, and their practices with the bombing and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, it is clear that they are not.' — The Guardian
Irish Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Hundreds attend music session in solidarity with Kneecap after court appearance
Hundreds of people attended a music session in Dublin in solidarity with Kneecap rapper Liam Og O hAnnaidh after he appeared in court on Wednesday. Kneecap flags and logos hung from the windows in Connolly Books, which dubs itself Ireland's oldest radical bookshop, in solidarity with O hAnnaidh, Kneecap and the people of Palestine. Pro-Palestine supporters criticised the decision by British authorities to bring a charge against the performer instead of focusing on the Israeli government's actions against the Palestinian people. O hAnnaidh, 27, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, is accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a gig in November last year. Kneecap's Liam Og O hAnnaidh, speaks to supporters as he leaves Westminster Magistrates' Court, London, where he was charged with a terrorism offence (Image: Lucy North/PA Wire) Hundreds of Kneecap supporters greeted O hAnnaidh as he arrived at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Wednesday morning, alongside fellow Kneecap rappers Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh. During the hearing, his defence team argued the case should be thrown out, citing a technical error in the way the charge against him was brought. The case has been adjourned until September 26, when the judge will rule on whether he has the jurisdiction to try the case. At the protest session at Connolly Books on Wednesday afternoon, several artists played Irish traditional music in solidarity with the rappers and Palestine. People attending the music session in Connolly Books (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire) Musician Ru O'Shea, who performed at the demonstration, said charging O hAnnaidh had turned him into 'a hero'. 'I think it's been a huge misstep by the powers that be to go after him in the first place,' he told the PA news agency. 'I reckon that they don't have a thing on him and I think they are turning him into a hero and I think we need a hero. 'What's happening in Palestine right now, it's gotten to such an extreme that it's waking a lot of people up, including the British who might not have ever seen it otherwise and stayed in that bubble forever.' Palestinian flags flown outside Connolly Books in Dublin's Temple Bar, where a music session took place to show solidarity for Kneecap's Liam Og O hAnnaidh after he appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court, in London, charged with a terrorism offence (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire) O'Shea's friend John Feehan said: 'I think people are maybe starting to look up a little bit in Britain and I think things like what's happening with Kneecap is a catalyst for people to be like 'Oh, wait a minute, what's actually happening here?'. So I hope there's momentum, but I really don't know.' Dubliner Aoife Powell, 19, said she came out to protest because she is 'angry' at the decision to charge an artist rather than focus on what is happening to the people of Gaza. 'I'm here because it just worries me that the fact that governments are focused on artists expressing themselves rather than the actual problem, which is obviously the genocide in Gaza,' she told PA. 'It's a little bit disheartening to see there's so much pressure being put on these artists to stop saying what they truly think and to stop standing on the right side of history. 'I feel like it's a distraction from what's actually happening. A 'Free Mo Chara' t-shirt and 'Make Palestine Great Again' cap at the music session to show solidarity for Kneecap's Liam Og O hAnnaidh (Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire) 'When a government tries to silence people, they should learn that they can never silence people. I feel like the public would get more angry at that.' Sean O'Grady is from Coleraine in Northern Ireland but has lived in Dublin for almost 70 years. 'I'm delighted with them (Kneecap), that they've done what they're doing and they're getting plenty of publicity. 'The British government are crazy, I mean, what are they at? 'They're supplying a lot of the bombs and a lot of the arms and ammunition to Israel to do what they're doing. So they should be ashamed of themselves instead of bringing in these people (to court) for stupid reasons. 'It's getting good publicity over there for the cause of the Palestinians.' Dubliner Dermot Nolan said he attended his first Palestine protest in 1967, and while he remembers horrific events such as the Vietnam War, the scale of death and injuries in Gaza is the worst he has ever lived through. 'I'm here because it's important to for two reasons – first of all, to show our intolerance of the genocide and slaughter that's being carried out by the US, Nato and Israel. 'The second reason is the question of civil rights. We're protesting about the indictment of a member of the Irish group Kneecap. 'It is a sign of creeping authoritarianism which is happening in all the western countries and most clearly in Britain.' Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week
The Journal
a day ago
- The Journal
US slaps fresh sanctions on four ICC officials, citing actions against 'close ally' Israel
THE UNITED STATES has imposed sanctions on four more International Criminal Court (ICC) judges and prosecutors, including from France and Canada, in a new effort to hobble the tribunal over its actions against Israel. The US State Department's website states that the sanctions have been issued 'in response to the ICC's ongoing threat to Americans and Israelis'. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the ICC is 'a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel', using a term popular with Donald Trump's supporters. Neither the US nor Israel are members of the ICC. Rubio said that the four people targeted from the tribunal based in The Hague had sought to investigate or prosecute nationals from the US or Israel 'without the consent of either nation.' The four include Judge Nicolas Guillou of France, who is presiding over a case in which an arrest warrant was issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last November. Advertisement The arrest warrant was issued for Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif, who has since been killed. The court said it had found 'reasonable grounds' to believe Netanyahu and Gallant bore 'criminal responsibility' for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare during the Gaza war, as well as the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts. Netanyahu welcomed the new US sanctions this afternoon, calling them a 'firm measure against the mendacious smear campaign against the State of Israel and the IDF, and for truth and justice'. Guillou, a veteran jurist, had also worked for several years in the US assisting the Justice Department with judicial cooperation during Barack Obama's presidency. The International Criminal Court in The Hague. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Canadian judge Kimberly Prost has also been targeted by the latest US sanctions over her involvement in a case that authorised an investigation into alleged crimes committed during the war in Afghanistan, including by US forces. Under the sanctions, the Trump administration will bar entry of the ICC judges to the US and block any property they have in the world's largest economy – measures more often taken against US adversaries than individuals from close allies. Rubio also slapped sanctions on two deputy prosecutors – Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal. Related Reads Israel calls up reservists and approves plan to conquer Gaza City Amnesty accuses Israel of deliberately starving Palestinians as mass anti-war protests hit Tel Aviv The US State Department said the two were punished by the US for supporting 'illegitimate ICC actions against Israel', including by supporting the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. The Trump administration has roundly rejected the authority of the court, which is backed by almost all European democracies and was set up as a court of last resort when national systems do not allow for justice. In February, Trump signed an executive order claiming that the court had 'abused its power' by issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu He ordered asset freezes and travel bans against ICC officials, employees and their family members, along with anyone deemed to have helped the court's investigations. On Friday, Trump welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska even though Putin faces an ICC arrest warrant, a factor that has stopped him from traveling more widely since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Rubio slapped sanctions on four other ICC judges in June. With reporting from © AFP 2025 Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
