'We took the gloves off': ex-IDF chief confirms Gaza casualties over 200,000

[groundloop]

Source: The Guardian

A former Israeli army commander, Herzi Halevi, has confirmed that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured in the war in Gaza, and that “not once” in the course of the conflict were military operations inhibited by legal advice.

[.....]

The retired general told a community meeting in southern Israel earlier this week that more than 10% of Gaza’s 2.2 million population had been killed or injured – “more than 200,000 people”. That estimate is notable as it is close to the current figures provided by Gaza’s health ministry, which Israeli officials have frequently dismissed as Hamas propaganda, though the ministry figures have been deemed reliable by international humanitarian agencies.

The current official toll is 64,718 Palestinians killed in Gaza and 163,859 injured, since the start of the war on 7 October 2023. Many thousands more are feared dead, with their bodies buried in the rubble. At least 40 people were reported killed on Friday in Israeli strikes, mostly around Gaza City.

The Gaza ministry statistics do not distinguish between civilians and fighters, but leaked Israeli military intelligence data on casualties until May this year suggested that more than 80% of the dead were civilians.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/12/israeli-ex-commander-confirms-palestinian-casualties-are-more-than-200000

[wolfie001]

1. Disgusting!

Basically, the reason we lost the Presidential election.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Genocide.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. That would be like 35,000,000 Americans being killed

True decimation, which literally means "removal of one in ten".

[moonshinegnomie]

4. there should be a world wide blockaid on israel

until netanyahu and his government are delivered to the hague for war crimes trials

[Fiendish Thingy]

5. I guess they'll stop when they reach 6 million?

Seems like a nice round number.

[travelingthrulife]

6. This really takes the sails out of their 'remember the genocide of WWII'

[electric_blue68]

7. Horrific! And Bibi loses no sleep.

😬

[AloeVera]

8. Sham "rubber-stamp" military lawyers that no one listens to anyway.

I'm glad the truth is finally coming out but it's too late for all the dead and maimed. Of course Israel doesn't "operate within international law" and these lawyers merely provided the fig leaf to claim otherwise. Truly abominable.

However, Halevi denied that legal advice had ever affected his or his immediate subordinates’ military decisions in Gaza or across the Middle East.

“Not once has anyone restricted me. Not once. Not the military AG [advocate general Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi] who, by the way, hasn’t the authority to restrict me,” he said.

In a quote that was not on the recording but was cited by Ynet, Halevi appeared to suggest that the main importance of Israel’s military lawyers was to convince the outside world of the legality of the IDF’s actions.

“There are legal advisers who say: We will know how to defend this legally in the world, and this is very important for the state of Israel"...