The Short Answer
About 1,200 people were killed in Israel on October 7, and hundreds of Israeli soldiers have since fallen in combat. In Gaza, the Hamas-run Health Ministry reports more than 70,000 deaths; in January 2026 a senior IDF official said Israel's own estimate was similar. Those totals do not separate civilians from combatants — the IDF says it killed more than 22,000 terrorists — and every death in this war is a tragedy that Hamas set in motion.
Who is counting
Gaza's casualty figures come from the Health Ministry in Gaza, which is part of the Hamas-run government. For most of the war, Israel and independent analysts cautioned that these numbers mixed combatants and civilians, included deaths from causes unrelated to Israeli fire, and were at times revised significantly — for example, the UN's own adjustment of its women-and-children breakdown in May 2024.
In January 2026, a senior Israeli military official told reporters the IDF believed about 70,000 Gazans had been killed, broadly in line with the ministry's total, while stressing that the civilian–combatant breakdown remained under review.
Context that matters
Before the October 2025 ceasefire, the IDF said it had killed at least 22,000 combatants in Gaza, plus about 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7. Urban warfare experts have noted that Hamas's strategy of fighting from tunnels beneath dense civilian areas, and preventing civilians from evacuating, made civilian casualties far more likely.
Israel's own losses include the roughly 1,200 people murdered on October 7 and hundreds of soldiers killed in Gaza, as well as civilians killed by rocket and missile fire from Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. Every innocent life lost — Israeli or Palestinian — is a tragedy.
Key Facts
- ~1,200 killed in Israel on October 7
- Gaza ministry reports 70,000+ deaths (not separating combatants)
- IDF says it killed 22,000+ combatants before the ceasefire
- IDF official said in Jan. 2026 the total was roughly consistent with its own estimate
Sources & Further Reading
- IDF believes ~70,000 Gazans killed; ratio unclear — Times of Israel (Jan 2026)
- Casualties of the Gaza war — overview (Wikipedia)
- Israel Defense Forces — official site
- HonestReporting — media coverage analysis
This answer reflects publicly available information as of October 2026.