Of the Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, five out of every six have been civilians, according to leaked statistics from the Israeli occupation forces' data, revealing the extent of the slaughter perpetrated in the besieged enclave.

A joint investigation by the Guardian, the Israeli publication +972 Magazine, and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has found that, as of May and 19 months into the war, Israeli intelligence officials listed 8,900 named fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as dead or “probably dead."

In May, 53,000 Palestinian civilians had been killed by "Israel" according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, a toll that includes both resistance fighters and civilians, meaning that the 8,900 named fighters in the IOF's databases constitute only 17% of the total death toll, while civilians cover the remaining 83%.

This apparent ratio of civilians to combatants among the dead is extremely high for modern warfare and remains so even when compared to conflicts notorious for indiscriminate killing, such as the Syrian war and the Sudanese civil war.

Therése Pettersson from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, which tracks civilian casualties worldwide stated, “That proportion of civilians among those killed would be unusually high, particularly as it has been going on for such a long time,” adding that, “If you single out a particular city or battle in another conflict, you could find similar rates, but very rarely overall."

Israeli military scrambles to respond

When approached for comment by Local Call and +972 Magazine, the Israeli occupation forces did not dispute the existence of the database or the data on Hamas and PIJ deaths, and when The Guardian requested a statement on the same information, a spokesperson stated they had decided to “rephrase” their response.

In a brief statement sent to The Guardian, the Israeli occupation forces said that the "figures presented in the article are incorrect" without specifying which data was disputed and added that the numbers "do not reflect the data available in the IOF’s systems" without detailing which systems.

According to the IOF, the database names 47,653 Palestinians counted as fighters active in both Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, based on alleged internal documents seized in Gaza, which The Guardian could not view or verify.

Multiple intelligence sources familiar with the database told The Guardian that the military viewed it as the only authoritative tally of fighter casualties. While Israeli politicians regularly dismiss the Gaza health ministry's numbers as propaganda, the Israeli army also considers its toll reliable, according to a report by Local Call, revealing that the former head of its military intelligence division recently appeared to cite it.

Even though much of Gaza has been reduced to ruins and tens of thousands of people have been killed, the classified database, according to the army's assessment, lists nearly 40,000 individuals who are considered fighters and are still alive.