DayofPal—Former Israel army commander Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has confirmed that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured during the nearly two-year war in Gaza.
The figure he confirmed aligns closely with the casualty estimates reported by Gaza’s health ministry and international humanitarian agencies.
Halevi, who stepped down in March after leading the Israeli army through the first 17 months of the war, made the remarks earlier this week during a community meeting in southern Israel.
Speaking to residents of Ein HaBesor moshav, he said: “More than 10% of Gaza’s 2.2 million population [has] been killed or injured, more than 200,000 people.”
The retired general’s estimate mirrors figures published by Gaza’s health ministry, which has recorded 64,718 Palestinians killed and 163,859 injured since the war began on October 7, 2023. Thousands more are feared buried under rubble.
Israeli officials have previously dismissed the ministry’s data as Hamas propaganda, but multiple international humanitarian organizations have deemed the figures credible.
Halevi’s comments mark a rare public acknowledgment from a senior Israeli military figure of the war’s human toll. Leaked Israeli military intelligence from earlier this year suggested that more than 80% of those killed in Gaza were civilians, a statistic consistent with ongoing assessments from rights groups and U.N. agencies.
“This isn’t a gentle war. We took the gloves off from the first minute. Sadly not earlier,” Halevi said during the meeting, suggesting that Israel should have taken a more aggressive stance in Gaza before the October 2023 that triggered the war.
In a striking admission, Halevi stated that legal advice from the military lawyers never restricted the army’s operations in Gaza or elsewhere. “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.
Although Israeli officials have repeatedly claimed that the army operates within international humanitarian law, Halevi’s remarks raise new questions about the true influence of legal oversight in operational decisions.
“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,” Halevi reportedly added, according to the Ynet news site, which published a recording of his remarks. That specific quote was not included in the audio but was cited in the report.
Michael Sfard, a prominent Israeli human rights lawyer, responded sharply to Halevi’s comments. “The generals see them as ‘regular’ advisers whose advice one can adopt or dismiss, not as professional lawyers whose legal positions present the boundaries of what is permissible and what is prohibited,” Sfard said. He added that Halevi’s remarks “confirm that the legal advisers serve as rubber stamps.”
Concerns about the limited role of legal oversight were further underscored by a report this week in Haaretz, which revealed that Halevi’s successor, current army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, had overridden legal advice from Tomer-Yerushalmi.
The advocate general had reportedly urged the military to delay orders displacing around 1 million Gaza City residents until sufficient humanitarian facilities were established in the south, the recommendation was ultimately ignored.
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