JERUSALEM, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) — A total of 1,318 troops, security personnel and first responders have been killed since the start of Israel’s three-year conflicts in the Middle East, the country’s Defense Ministry said Sunday.
The ministry released the figures ahead of the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 251 people were kidnapped and about 1,200 others were killed. In response, Israel launched a military campaign in the Gaza Strip that has since expanded to fighting across the region.
The death toll includes soldiers, police officers, Shin Bet internal security agents, prison service personnel, firefighters, rescue workers, local security coordinators and members of emergency response squads, according to the ministry.
The tally includes Israel’s military operations since the Oct. 7 attack in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, as well as its operations against Iran and Houthi forces in Yemen.
Over the same period, Israel’s military offensive in Gaza killed more than 74,228 Palestinians and wounded 175,188 others, the Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said about 82 percent of the structures — about 200,000 buildings — in Gaza have been damaged, with two-thirds of them destroyed.
In September 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel issued a report that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and called on Israel to immediately halt atrocities in the Palestinian enclave.
Beyond Gaza, the conflict has spread across the region. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said in June that the cumulative death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 had reached 4,057, with 12,121 people wounded.
In Iran, the official news agency IRNA, citing Iranian officials, reported in April that the death toll had reached 3,468, including 1,460 civilians, during a 40-day conflict against Israel and the United States.
In the occupied West Bank, violence has also intensified. According to UN figures, 1,122 Palestinians were killed there between Oct. 7, 2023, and July 24, 2026.
Israeli forces have also entered the buffer zone between Israel and Syria following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government. The area, a UN-monitored demilitarized zone established under the 1974 Disengagement Agreement between Israel and Syria, is intended to remain free of military forces.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity, a decision Israel rejected. ■