• Natanael
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    26 months ago

    I can’t find any source showing the context of the 30-35% claim from US Intel. I can’t even find a reliable source of the US estimate of how many fighters they have. The last public numbers from US intel in January had much more detail and said 20% incapacitated, not 20% dead. A jump to +30% of Hamas fighters dead now seems beyond implausible. Especially because USA has also said they don’t independently track deaths in the region, they rely on local numbers.

    Different Hamas officials have made different claims about their losses, and all the sources seems vague. It’s been reported as 6000 - 8000 either lost (could be casualties including injured survivors not able to fight) or dead. And some of them deny the numbers entirely.

    https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/in-gaza-authorities-lose-count-of-the-dead-779ff694

    It’s absolutely not the 15K that IDF claims.

    • @FlowVoid
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      6 months ago

      The last public numbers from US intel in January had much more detail and said 20% incapacitated, not 20% dead.

      I don’t think so, this is from your January link (my emphasis):

      security forces have killed just 20-30 percent of the terror group’s terrorists in the Gaza Strip, US intelligence agencies are reportedly estimating.

      The wounded are counted separately.

      • Natanael
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        16 months ago

        This article seems to have the clearest numbers

        https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1365166/israeli-forces-have-killed-20-30-percent-of-hamas-fighters-wsj-report.html

        25-30K fighters, 20-30% killed, so at best ~10K down to ~5K, assuming their intel is correct. It’s very strange that the estimate of killed fighters is in percent and injuries is in absolute numbers. Doesn’t make me feel confident they got the context right of the numbers shared

        • @FlowVoid
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          6 months ago

          at best ~10K down to ~5K

          I believe those are still from January, when the total number of deaths was 25,000. So if they are correct then that would result in a casualty ratio between 1.5:1 and 4:1

          • Natanael
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            16 months ago

            … And they’re almost all caused by one side, not casualties divided across two equal fighting armies among civilians.

            • @FlowVoid
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              6 months ago

              I’m not sure that matters, since the majority of military casualties are caused by the same side.

              So for example, when evaluating the Iraq War you would compare Iraqi civilian to Iraqi military casualties. There is little point in looking at American civilian casualties.