SUMMARY

Note to reader: Most civilian fatalities in the war between the Government of Israel and Hamas after October 2023 are recorded under the state-based Israel: Palestine conflict, and therefore do not appear on this one-sided violence page.

The vast majority of deaths attributed to Israel’s one-sided category are Palestinian civilians killed by Israel Defence Forces and security troops in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In order to quash popular dissent (such as the First and Second Intifadas) towards the Israeli occupation of territory in these localities Israeli forces have been involved in numerous clashes with demonstrators and stone-throwers that have resulted in civilian deaths. One-sided violence can also be located in Lebanon, where the Government of Israel has been fighting Hezbollah and other militants, but has also hit civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Israeli attacks on civilians are recorded in the UCDP database as early as 1989, a year that was plagued by Israeli crackdowns on demonstrations and riots in the West Bank and Gaza Strip streets and refugee camps.

It is difficult at times to estimate the number of unarmed civilians (primarily Palestinian and Lebanese) that are deliberately targeted and killed by Israel’s armed forces. This is mainly due to many civilians being killed in activities such as violent street protests, stone-throwing activity and air/artillery strikes in which it is hard to separate one-sided deaths from battle-related deaths due to unclear circumstances, claims that the troops were aiming at armed combatants and the intermingling of militants and innocent civilians. Such circumstances are particularly common in the conflicts that involve Israel in the post-Cold War period and can explain the very cautious estimates given.

The Government of Israel first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1989, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in May of that year when government attacks on civilians had resulted in more than 25 deaths.