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EX-IDF CHIEF CONFIRMS GAZA CASUALTIES OVER 200,000  
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Julian Borger
September 12, 2025
The Guardian
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_ Retired general Herzi Halevi says ‘not once’ had legal advice
constrained Israel’s military decisions in the strip. _

Former army chief of staff Herzi Halevi (r) in Gaza in 2023. His
tally of killed and injured Palestinians is close to that of Gaza’s
health ministry., Israel Defense Forces/Reuters

 

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
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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
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“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
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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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