Talk:Casualties of the Israel–Hamas war
This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Casualties of the Israel–Hamas war article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
Archives: 1, 2Auto-archiving period: 20 days |
Controversy regarding the number of Palestinian casualties in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war was nominated for deletion. The discussion was closed on 26 January 2024 with a consensus to merge. Its contents were merged into Casualties of the Israel–Hamas war. The original page is now a redirect to this page. For the contribution history and old versions of the redirected article, please see its history; for its talk page, see here. |
Warning: active arbitration remedies The contentious topics procedure applies to this article. Parts of this article relate to the Arab–Israeli conflict, which is a contentious topic. Furthermore, the following rules apply when editing the parts of the page related to the contentious topic:
Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page. If it is unclear which parts of the page are related to this contentious topic, the content in question should be marked within the wiki text by an invisible comment. If no comment is present, please ask an administrator for assistance. If in doubt it is better to assume that the content is covered. |
While the biographies of living persons policy does not apply directly to the subject of this article, it may contain material that relates to living persons, such as friends and family of persons no longer living, or living persons involved in the subject matter. Unsourced or poorly sourced contentious material about living persons must be removed immediately. If such material is re-inserted repeatedly, or if there are other concerns related to this policy, please see this noticeboard. |
This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
This article has been mentioned by a media organization:
|
Claims of "Highest Civilian ratio" are flatly false, as given even by the wikipedia page on the subject--specific suggestion: remove any superlative claims, and link to academic scholarly sources on historical ratios of civilian casualties
[edit]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualty_ratio
Furthermore, the earlier section claims, citing an editorial, that indirect deaths could be up to 120,000-200,000---aside from being flatly false and ridiculous, this claim is based on an anlysis citing a letter to the lancet
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext
which cites a UN report, that argues indirect to direct casualty rates are 4:1 to 16:1
https://www.refworld.org/reference/research/gds/2008/en/64390
In other words, THE VERY BASIS FOR THE CLAIM IS CONTRADICTED BY EVIDENCE EARLIER ADDUCED FOR IT.
IF Israel has the ratio it does, as can be inferred from *otherwise typical* ratios in other wars, it can't be unprecedented for then having a reported ratio less than this !
Furthermore, the UN claims that 90% of deaths in war are civilians!
https://press.un.org/en/2022/sc14904.doc.htm
Research linked to on the wikiedpai page for indirect casualty ratios
As well as https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8581199/
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043416
https://ourworldindata.org/war-and-peace
https://education.cfr.org/learn/reading/civilian-consequences-conflict
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians
Cited on this page is the Gaza & Hamas claim that 20% of Hamas fighters have been killed (a number representing 7000-8000 people), and that 20% of deaths are Hamas.
Combined with other claims about deaths of women, children and elderly, this would require less than 10% of casualties to be adult males * not in Hamas*, and either that means 100% of Hamas males above 18 are in Hamas (blatantly false), or that Israel is going out of its way to reduce its mle targets by 80% (nonsensical claim), unless, of course, Gaza health ministry claims (10,000 of which are not confirmed, and a further 10,000 are inferred from media reports, themselves inferred from Ministry claims, creating circular verification).
What's more, daily casualty rates have fallen 75% according to both GHM and UN statistics! (20,00 in first 1.5 months, 15,000 in 4.5 months, 5,000 in 4.5 months--see UN impact report for Gaza 10/28/24).
- Specific Edit 1:*
Thus, ALL superlative claims should be removed, especially those inconsistent with other wikipedia pages, which are internally inconsistent, which contradict their own claims and which are implausible.
These include claims that they are killing civilians at historically unprecedented rates--no data bears that out wars used to have a 1:1 to 1:2 ratio, then by the 20th century this rose to 1:3 to 1:4 and in the 90s and 00s rose to 1:5 to 1:8--a 1:3 - 1:2 ratio, which matches UN, Hamas, and IDF data, is in fact, quite common.
- Specific Edit 2*
Claims implying absurdities, such as that 10% of Gaza's population would have died in under 11 months without Hamas or the UN saying so--as the claim of 200,000 dead implies--should be outright removed.
In addition, if included, the basis and citation should be the Lancet letter, not the Guardian editorial that cites it, and it should be made clear that their claims are NOT a peer reviewed article, but a letter to the editor further based on a selective UN report
- Specific Edit 3*
Contradictory claims should be removed,
If a ratio of 1:3 is unprecedented
It cannot also be the case that, there are 200,000 potential dead, based on a historical norm of ratios of 1:4 to 1:16
and
It cannot also be the case that 20% of Hamas fighters have been killed (which would be 8000/41,000 Palestinian dead), which would imply a 4:1 ratio *AT MAXIMUM* and *only if Israel killed no further adult males*--indeed, the ratios mentioned are based on the casualty figures, less the Hamas reported fighters, less the 10,000 or so people who are missing, and not proven dead. This is according to the Gaza health ministry, not Israeli data, etc.. Since these claim further that 60-70% of these dead are women, children, and elderly, this could be .6-.7 * 25,000, or 15,000-17,500 of the 41,000 which are 36%to 42% of casualties--again, this is what the LINKED SOURCES demonstrate.
- specific Edit 4*
Claims about historical and comparative cases should cite scholarly, peer reviewed research or be removed
- Specific Edit 5*
Remove editorializing, or editorializing through citation/quotation, and remove speculation by third parties, and just link to the primary sources, such as the UN impact reports. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amilcontentanalysis (talk • contribs) 11:54, 29 September 2024 (UTC)
- The 'specific edits' are nowhere near being specific, so no we can't do that. Also I found it quite difficult to figure out exactly what problem you were addressing, it is really worthwhile trying to make things easy for others, many more people read what's written than write it. Please also when adding a new topic to a talk page click 'Add topic' at the top to put the new topic at the bottom rather than somewhere in the middle and sign your contribution at the end with ~~~~ NadVolum (talk) 12:25, 29 September 2024 (UTC)
Deaths from 'natural' causes
[edit][https://www.qna.org.qa/en/News-Area/News/2024-09/12/0074-palestinian-government-report-number-of-natural-deaths-in-gaza-increased-by-more-than-six-times-due-to%C2%A0-israeli-aggression. Six times greater natural deaths is worth noting I believe - As far as I can make out this would mean another 50,000 'natural' deaths as the natural death rate is 3.8 per 1000 because the population iss very young. Is this what it means? NadVolum (talk) 11:56, 23 September 2024 (UTC)
Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 23 September 2024
[edit]This edit request to Casualties of the Palestinian Genocide has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
Change Israel Hamas war to Palestinian genocide 2601:5CC:4101:1B90:A8D7:8E08:1648:1012 (talk) 22:33, 23 September 2024 (UTC)
- Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the
{{Edit extended-protected}}
template. Shadow311 (talk) 23:39, 23 September 2024 (UTC)
Definition of "killed in the Israel–Hamas war"
[edit]It's still not clear in this article how the GHM defines which deaths to include and which not to. I assume they don't include natural deaths; has this been stated explicitly anywhere? The current lede claims 'The GHM count does not include those who have died from "preventable disease, malnutrition and other consequences of the war".', but the NPR source doesn't back up this claim. Does the GHM at least publish other death tolls (such as from disease or natural causes), so the numbers can be compared?
(The same of course applies to Israel, but the smaller death toll and clear breakdown in the article makes the question less relevant.) Ornilnas (talk) 04:01, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- Professor Spiegel of AOAV says GHM only count trauma deaths in those figures. There's a Palestinian report that the natural death rate has also gone up by a factor of more than six - I haven't see much more details but that would mean something like 50,000 'natural' deaths in the last year as well I believe, so it is in the same order as the deaths from bombs etc. Before the war the death rate was 3.85 per thousand per year as it is quite a young population. NadVolum (talk) 11:37, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, I saw your link above about natural deaths, but I couldn't find the report it was based upon. I also found the quote from Spiegel you mentioned, but he doesn't say where he gets it from. If it was just plainly stated by the GHM together with the numbers, what the numbers mean, that would be enough for me to resolve the issue. Ornilnas (talk) 00:10, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
- It is what they mean when they say 'martyr', see Martyrdom in Palestinian society. Those are all martyrs according to the GHM. NadVolum (talk) 09:00, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
- Yes, I saw your link above about natural deaths, but I couldn't find the report it was based upon. I also found the quote from Spiegel you mentioned, but he doesn't say where he gets it from. If it was just plainly stated by the GHM together with the numbers, what the numbers mean, that would be enough for me to resolve the issue. Ornilnas (talk) 00:10, 2 October 2024 (UTC)
Gaza strip 'civilians' section
[edit]Displaying the Gaza death toll graph (which does not make distinction between militants and civilians) right at the beginning of this section gives a misleading impression to readers of excessive civilian death.
The Pie Chart expressing a breakdown of deaths by age and gender uses significantly outdated data, and contradicts source 50, which offers a more complete and up to date count. Changing the pie chart to express those values is likely to give a more accurate view of the conflict.
It is currently October 2024, and deaths are still around 40,000. Including speculation that deaths 'may' approach 186,000 by the end of June 2024, which has long passed, is not useful to the reader and not encyclopedic knowledge. Yilmaz1001 (talk) 20:54, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- Those seem reasonable and fairly straightforward edit request. We don't have any good reliable estimate of militant deaths but I don't think taking it out of that graph would make the number of civilian deaths less excessive in any meaningful way. Yes it would be good to update the pie chart though it wouldn't look all that much different - a 5% increase in the number of adult males. The 40,000 is bodies of people that have died of trauma that aren't under the rubble. There's maybe another 10,000 under the rubble and and a rougly equal number of excess deaths due to other reasons bringing the actual total to somewhere in the region of ninety or a hundred thousand. Which is far less than the 186,000 mentioned. I'm not sure how to phrase that. There's been a lot of criticism of that figure so either that could be put in or just quote the Palestinian report about excess natural deaths plus the figure in June for the direct casualties of the war. NadVolum (talk) 22:35, 1 October 2024 (UTC)
- I've updated the pie chart to reflect the last release of complete data, on Aug 31.VR (Please ping on reply) 19:47, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 8 October 2024
[edit]This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request. |
The line "(123-129 Palestinian, 2-4 Israeli, 3-5 Lebanese and one 1 Syrian)" should be changed to "(123-129 Palestinian, 2-4 Israeli, 3-5 Lebanese and 1 Syrian)" because you wouldn't ever say "one 1 Syrian" it should just be "1 Syrian" Strictlymipsing (talk) 04:52, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
- fixed Rainsage (talk) 05:11, 8 October 2024 (UTC)
Table
[edit]@Onceinawhile, once again, I've tried to use a table to make sense of a lot of confusing data. Please check it out and give me feedback. :-) VR (Please ping on reply) 03:19, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
Combatant casualties
[edit]This article is missing any discussion of combatant casualties in the Gaza strip. Please rectify this 93.173.53.240 (talk) 08:37, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
- Your request does not appear to be related to this article. Perhaps try the read aloud option in your web browser. Sean.hoyland (talk) 10:45, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
- The recently added table at the top of Casualties of the Israel–Hamas war#Civilian to military ratio may answer their query. Until recently it has been hard to find any reliable source for this. We still don't have accurate figures but this at least gives a reasonable range of estimates. NadVolum (talk) 10:59, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
- @NadVolum any feedback on that? I don't think we should all multiple IDF claims to that table as that would be undue. We should take the latest Israeli claim as representative of their position, so the June entry should be enough.VR (Please ping on reply) 17:35, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
- Seems reasonable to me. Actually they came out with a claim of 17,000 in August. [1]. NadVolum (talk) 20:00, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
- @NadVolum any feedback on that? I don't think we should all multiple IDF claims to that table as that would be undue. We should take the latest Israeli claim as representative of their position, so the June entry should be enough.VR (Please ping on reply) 17:35, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
- The recently added table at the top of Casualties of the Israel–Hamas war#Civilian to military ratio may answer their query. Until recently it has been hard to find any reliable source for this. We still don't have accurate figures but this at least gives a reasonable range of estimates. NadVolum (talk) 10:59, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
Sensationalism
[edit]This article includes a lancet projection stating that by June 2024 fatalities would reach 180,000 in summation of one of the subsections. It is September and confirmed fatalities have risen marginally from the 35,000 at the time of publication. Seems clearly irrelevant now 93.173.53.240 (talk) 08:39, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
- The fact that the Lancet letter was published in July 2024 is a clue that assuming the Wikipedia accurately reflects the contents of the letter was a mistake. The context of the projection is "Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as...etc.", and the projection itself is "it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza". It looks like the Wikipedia article needs some corrections. So, the explanation appears to be faulty summarization rather than sensationalism. Sean.hoyland (talk) 09:44, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
- First of all that figure was for all excess deaths because of the war and not just direct ones - that figure currently would be about 90,000 to 100,000 I believe. Also that was in the context then of a looming major famine, that was a real possibility and could easily have led to that figure. Thankfully Israeli then loosened their blockade to allow more food in and the worst of that possibility has been averted. Possibly the bit around there could be improved to make the context clearer. NadVolum (talk) 10:44, 9 October 2024 (UTC)
- C-Class Death articles
- Mid-importance Death articles
- C-Class Disaster management articles
- Mid-importance Disaster management articles
- C-Class Israel-related articles
- Mid-importance Israel-related articles
- WikiProject Israel articles
- WikiProject Israel Palestine Collaboration articles
- C-Class Lebanon articles
- Low-importance Lebanon articles
- WikiProject Lebanon articles
- C-Class military history articles
- C-Class Middle Eastern military history articles
- Middle Eastern military history task force articles
- C-Class Post-Cold War articles
- Post-Cold War task force articles
- C-Class Palestine-related articles
- Mid-importance Palestine-related articles
- WikiProject Palestine articles
- C-Class Syria articles
- Low-importance Syria articles
- WikiProject Syria articles
- C-Class Terrorism articles
- Low-importance Terrorism articles
- WikiProject Terrorism articles
- Wikipedia pages referenced by the press