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.
Halevi stepped down as chief of staff in March after leading the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for the first 17 months of the war, which is now approaching its second anniversary.
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.
About 1,200 people were killed in the original 7 October Hamas attack, which ignited the war, of whom 815 were Israeli and foreign civilians.
“This isn’t a gentle war. We took the gloves off from the first minute. Sadly not earlier,” Halevi said, suggesting the Israel should have taken a tougher line in Gaza before the 7 October attack.
The former commander was talking on Tuesday night to residents of Ein HaBesor moshav (agricultural cooperative), who succeeded in repelling the Hamas attackers two years ago. A recording of his remarks was published by the Ynet news website.
“No one is working gently,” Halevi said, but insisted the IDF operates within the constraints of international humanitarian law. That claim has been repeated throughout the war by Israeli officials, who have said that military lawyers are involved in operational decisions.
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,” he is quoted as saying.
The IDF was approached for comment on Halevi’s remarks about the death toll and the role of military lawyers, but had not replied by Friday evening.
Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer, said Halevi’s remarks “confirm that the legal advisers serve as rubber stamps”.
“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.
On Wednesday, the Haaretz newspaper reported that Halevi’s successor as IDF chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, had ignored Tomer-Yerushalmi’s legal advice. The advocate general had reportedly said that the displacement orders to an estimated 1 million Gaza City residents to leave before an IDF offensive should be postponed until there were facilities in southern Gaza to receive them.
Many of the 40 Palestinian victims of Friday’s Israeli strikes appeared to have been people who were unable to move south, or unwilling to abandon their homes or shelters to risk of going somewhere in Gaza where there was no shelter or protection against Israeli bombing.
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