The term genocide has a strict legal definition under the 1948 Genocide Convention: it requires intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, not just causing a high number of deaths.

Different groups, commentators and even international bodies have taken very different positions on whether what’s happening in the Israeli-Palestinian context meets that definition:

Some human rights organizations — for example Amnesty International — have concluded that Israel’s conduct in Gaza meets the legal criteria of genocide based on patterns of killing and deliberate harm to civilian life, and have called for investigations and legal accountability.

A United Nations Commission of Inquiry has likewise characterized actions as genocidal under international law, prompting diplomatic clashes and rebuttals from Israel.

South Africa has taken a case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging genocide, and Israel is defending itself before that court.

Some countries, like Türkiye, have even issued arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials for genocide and crimes against humanity — although Israel rejects those charges as politically motivated.

🩸 Palestinian deaths in Gaza

• According to multiple news reports based on local health authorities and international figures, the total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since the conflict began in October 2023 is over 70 000. This figure has been widely cited in reporting and was acknowledged by Israeli officials in early 2026 coverage.

⚠️ This is a rapidly changing situation with no single universally agreed official tally. Different organizations (e.g., the Palestine Ministry of Health, the United Nations, NGOs) publish their own figures, but over 70 000 Palestinian deaths is the commonly cited estimate as of early 2026.

📰 Journalists and media workers killed

There are varying tallies from different press freedom organizations — but all indicate this conflict has been the deadliest for journalists in modern history:

• The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented extremely high numbers of journalists killed related to reporting on the conflict. According to CPJ’s annual reporting:
  • In 2025 alone, 129 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide, and Israel was reported responsible for around 86 of those deaths, a majority of them Palestinians in Gaza.
  • According to extended compilations and aggregated data from multiple sources, hundreds of journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. Some collated counts from open-source reporting list figures like around 240–270 journalists killed, most of them Palestinian.

Different organizations use different methodologies and time frames, so counts vary, but in all cases this is described as the deadliest conflict for journalists in recent history.