More than 10% of Gaza’s population has been killed or injured, former Israeli military chief says

“There are 2.2 million people in Gaza. There are in Gaza today more than 10% who were killed or injured, more than 200,000. ” said former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, speaking at the community of Ein HaBesor in southern Israel last week. The figure is noteworthy because it is very close to the number of casualties reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which claims that Israeli forces have killed nearly 65,000 Palestinians and injured over 164,000.

Israeli officials questioned the health ministry’s stated death and injury statistics in the besieged enclave on several occasions during the war. Additionally, they charged that the ministry was using information provided by Hamas.

Although Halevi’s remarks were delivered on Tuesday, they weren’t widely covered by the Israeli media until the weekend, when many of them released an audio clip of them. CNN confirmed that Halevi had spoken at the event by speaking with an attendee and obtaining a copy of the audio. For the first 17 months of the conflict, Halevi served as the chief of staff.

“Not once did anyone restrict me,” Halevi said. “Not the military prosecutor – by the way, she has no authority to restrict me. There are legal advisers who say: we will know how to defend this legally in the world, and this is important for the State of Israel.”