In May, 8,900 named combatants for Hamas and Islamic Jihad were listed as dead or "likely dead" in the classified military database, according to the investigation.
At the same time, the Hamas-controlled health authorities in Gaza reported that 53,000 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli attacks.
"Very unusual"
The named combatants make up 17 percent of that figure. If all the remaining 83 percent were civilians, the proportion of civilian casualties in the war would be unusually high compared to other conflicts since 1989, says Therése Pettersson at Uppsala University's conflict database UCDP to The Guardian.
Especially considering it has been going on for so long.
If you isolate a particular city or battle in another conflict, you can find similar proportions, but it is very unusual overall, she continues.
UCDP maps civilian casualties in conflicts around the world.
Israel: Incorrect figures
Behind the investigation are The Guardian, the Hebrew-language site Local Call and +972, an Israeli-Palestinian blog collective that, according to its own statement, wants to be an alternative to established media and conduct "intersectional and progressive" journalism.
The Israeli military states in a statement to The Guardian that the figures presented in the article are incorrect and that they "do not reflect the data in the military's system". Previously, both Israeli politicians and military commanders have stated that significantly more than 8,900 Palestinian combatants have been killed in Gaza.
In its annual report for 2024, UCDP notes that it has generally become more difficult for researchers to determine who are civilians and who belong to armed groups, and specifically mentions wars where densely populated areas are bombed from the air.
Israel does not allow international journalists into Gaza, and information about the number of people killed in the war is often difficult to verify.
