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Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed at Historic Pace
Even a conservative assessment of the reported Gaza casualty figures shows that the rate of death during Israel’s assault has few precedents in this century, experts say.
![](https://static01.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2023-11-23-total-death/95aea0e6-f0f2-44d0-bb13-192ac5faa759/_assets/area_chart-Artboard_1.png)
Deaths reported in Gaza
14,000
deaths
12,000
All people
10,000
8,000
Regular reporting
on women and
children began
6,000
4,000
2,000
Women and children
Oct. 7
Oct. 20
Nov. 1
Nov. 10
Nov. 22
![](https://static01.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2023-11-23-total-death/95aea0e6-f0f2-44d0-bb13-192ac5faa759/_assets/area_chart-Artboard_2.png)
14,000
deaths
Deaths reported in Gaza
12,000
All people
10,000
8,000
Regular reporting
on women and
children began
6,000
4,000
2,000
Women and children
Oct. 7
Oct. 20
Nov. 1
Nov. 10
Nov. 22
Israel has cast the deaths of civilians in the Gaza Strip as a regrettable but unavoidable part of modern conflict, pointing to the heavy human toll from military campaigns the United States itself once waged in Iraq and Syria.
But a review of past conflicts and interviews with casualty and weapons experts suggest that Israel’s assault is different.
While wartime death tolls will never be exact, experts say that even a conservative reading of the casualty figures reported from Gaza shows that the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in this century.
People are being killed in Gaza more quickly, they say, than in even the deadliest moments of U.S.-led attacks in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which were themselves widely criticized by human rights groups.
Precise comparisons of war dead are impossible, but conflict-casualty experts have been taken aback at just how many people have been reported killed in Gaza — most of them women and children — and how rapidly.
It is not just the scale of the strikes — Israel said it had engaged more than 15,000 targets before reaching a brief cease-fire in recent days. It is also the nature of the weaponry itself.
![](https://static01.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2023-11-16-men-women-children/3ac86ede-3dda-4f48-ab76-cb87a5d4b5d7/_assets/ratio-Artboard_1.png)
Share of people in Gaza killed in fighting
between Israel and Hamas
Men
Women and children
2023
war
69%
2021
fighting
41%
2014
war
38%
2008-09
war
39%
![](https://static01.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2023-11-16-men-women-children/3ac86ede-3dda-4f48-ab76-cb87a5d4b5d7/_assets/ratio-Artboard_2.png)
Share of people in Gaza killed in fighting
between Israel and Hamas
Men
Women and children
2023
war
69%
2021
fighting
41%
2014
war
38%
2008-09
war
39%
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