Israeli officer breaks silence on massive Gaza war losses

The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, quoting an unnamed commander of one of the Israeli army battalions, reported: “We are facing a shortage of over 10,000 soldiers who have been killed or wounded, while several thousand others are repeatedly caught in a cycle of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

The newspaper added: “According to Israeli army data, the number of soldiers killed since the start of the war has risen to 861, of whom 419 were killed in ground battles in the Gaza Strip that began on October 27, 2023.”

According to the occupying army’s announced statistics, the number of wounded soldiers has reached 5,921, of whom 2,987 were injured in ground battles in the Gaza Strip.

The publication of information regarding resistance operations and the Zionist army’s casualties, particularly fatalities in the Gaza war, has been subject to strict military censorship from the outset, and Israeli media are prohibited from releasing information about the number of deaths.

Nevertheless, Hebrew media and sources occasionally expose the Israeli army’s falsehoods. On December 10, Yedioth Ahronoth published a shocking report about the occupying army’s losses in the Gaza war, stating that the number of injured soldiers had reached 5,000, with approximately 2,000 of them disabled. However, the Hebrew outlet was later forced to retract its report and confirm a lower figure.

Analysts cite the main reasons for this news censorship as maintaining the morale of Zionist soldiers, mitigating the impact of the Al-Aqsa Storm operation on the Zionist public, preventing increased public pressure on Israeli security and political officials, avoiding boosting the morale of Palestinian resistance fighters on the battlefield, and protecting the reputation and credibility of the heavily armed Israeli army.