On August 21, 2025, +972 Magazine, Local Call and The Guardian reported that a classified Israeli military intelligence database listed about 8,900 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters as killed (7,330 "certain," 1,570 "probably dead") as of May 2025. Set against the Gaza Health Ministry's toll at the time (~53,000), that implies at least 83% civilians — about 5 civilians for every fighter (86% counting only "certain" deaths).

The finding spread widely — e.g. Drop Site News on X: "at least 83% of Palestinians killed in Gaza were civilians, according to a classified Israeli army intelligence database." In conversation it often grows into "the highest civilian-to-combatant ratio of any war — higher than World War II."

• The 83% figure is correctly quoted from a real, named, co-published investigation; the arithmetic (8,900 of ~53,000) is right. (+972 / Guardian; Al Jazeera)
• The IDF did not deny the database exists. It first said "comprehensive intelligence assessments were conducted," then said "the figures presented in the article are incorrect and do not reflect the data available in the IDF's systems," without saying which figures. (+972)
• By whole-war standards the share would be unusually high. Therese Pettersson of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program told the reporters such ratios appear in single battles but "very rarely" across a whole war; in UCDP data since 1989, only the Srebrenica and Rwanda genocides and the 2022 siege of Mariupol had higher civilian shares. (+972)

• The database undercounts fighters by design. It lists only named members of the military wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad — not members of other armed groups, not fighters killed but never identified, not political operatives. The reporters' own sources said the true number of fighters killed is likely higher. (+972)
• The IDF rejects the figures, and Israeli officials have publicly claimed ratios of roughly 1:1 to 2:1, based on much higher counts of fighters killed (earlier IDF statements cited 12,000+ by 2024). Those counts are themselves unverified; the reporters' sources described some earlier army tallies as unreliable. (+972; Times of Israel)
• The denominator is uncertain. The Gaza Health Ministry (Hamas-run) count does not distinguish civilians from fighters, and analysts disagree on whether it over- or under-counts. A senior IDF official later said the army believes ~70,000 Gazans were killed but that the civilian-combatant breakdown is "unclear." (Times of Israel)
• Independent estimates differ. Academic estimates using other methods have put the civilian share around 61–68% (roughly 1.6–2 civilians per fighter) for the periods they studied — high by historical standards, but well below 83%. (IPS News; The EastAfrican citing Haaretz)

Bottom line: the true ratio is not known. Credible estimates span from about 1:1 (Israeli government) to about 5:1 (the leaked database), with independent academic estimates in between.

Two different questions get mixed up: how many people died, and how many of them were fighters. Sources that are fairly good at the first can be useless for the second.

Best-supported conclusions:

• Total deaths: tens of thousands — the named list (72,835 through May 2026) and the independent survey point the same way; the survey suggests the ministry undercounted violent deaths early in the war.
• "70% women and children": not supported. The ministry's own named list shows 47.6% women (18+) and children (under 18) combined. The AP found the ministry's identified share had already fallen to 54% by April 2024 while Hamas kept citing ~70%.
• Civilian share: not known. The defensible range runs from roughly 60–65% (if Israeli fighter counts are right) to 83%+ (if the leaked database's floor is close to the truth).

"Children" in Gaza casualty counts means everyone under 18. That lumps together toddlers and 17-year-olds — and Hamas is documented to recruit and train teenagers (it runs military-style camps for children and teens, and the IDF has released footage it says shows a child being used to carry weapons). Separating the age groups matters.

From the ministry's own named list (through May 7, 2026):

• Under 13: 14,231 (19.5% of the named dead). Boys and girls die at nearly the same rate — the pattern of civilians killed in homes and shelters. Whatever the overall ratio, these are not combatants.
• Ages 13–17: 7,406 (10.2%). The share of boys climbs steeply with age — 2.5 boys for every girl at 15–17, approaching the adult pattern (3.4 men per woman at 18–44). This is consistent with older boys being more exposed, including some who fought; the data cannot say how many.
• The headline "children" figure is real but often misread. About two-thirds of children killed were under 13; about one-third were teenagers, mostly boys.
• UN verified sample: of 8,119 deaths the UN verified for the first six months, 44% were children and the largest single age group was 5–9 — a higher child share than the full named list, which suggests the verified subset is not representative of all deaths.

• This comparison is not in the investigation. It was added in retelling.
• WWII's civilian share was itself very high: roughly 60–75% of all deaths depending on the estimate (e.g. the National WWII Museum's figures of about 45 million civilian deaths out of ~60 million) — including the Holocaust, famine and disease.
• 83% would be numerically higher than WWII's overall share, but the comparison mixes unlike things (a whole world war including genocide and famine vs. combat deaths in one territory), and 83% is the top of a disputed range. At the 61–68% independent estimates, Gaza would be comparable to, not higher than, WWII.

Rating for this part: Not established.