Israeli soldiers carry the coffin of Gal Eizenkot, the
son of Israeli government s war cabinet minister Gadi Eizenkot, who was killed
in battles with Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, during his funeral in
Herzliya, on December 8, 2023. AFP
Dec 9, 2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot reported that 5,000 Israeli soldiers
have been wounded since the start of the war in Gaza, describing the figure as
unprecedented in Israeli wars.
Of these, 2,000 soldiers are recognized by the Israeli army as disabled, added Yediot Ahronot, one of the oldest papers in Israel.
The Israeli Ministry of Defence’s Department of Rehabilitation receives 60
wounded people every day, most of whom are seriously injured, the newspaper
reported.
However, the report noted that this number only covers police and
reservists, suggesting the actual number is higher when taking into account
casualties from active-duty military.
“We have never encountered anything like this. More than 58 percent of the
wounded who come to us have severe injuries to the arms and legs, including
those requiring amputations,” said Limora Luria, head of the rehabilitation
department.
About 12 percent of the wounded suffer from internal injuries, while seven
percent are psychologically traumatized, she added in remarks to the newspaper.
This would be an unprecedented number of casualties compared to recent
Israeli wars.
During Israel’s last large-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip, in 2008/2009,
just over 300 Israeli soldiers were wounded in around three weeks, according to
the foreign ministry.
Before this, in their 2006 war against Hezbollah, around 1,200 Israeli
soldiers were wounded in just over a month, according to the commission of
inquiry formed afterwards.
The last time Israel sustained a higher number of non-fatal casualties over
such a short period was in the 1973 October War it fought against Egypt and
Syria.
An updated version of Yediot Ahronot’s story removed all reference to the
5,000 figure, without explaining why the change was made.
The Israeli army does not provide regular figures about the number of
injuries it has sustained in its war on Gaza.
In late November, another leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz published
an exclusive report revealing that 1,000 soldiers had been wounded since 7
October.
Haaretz also uncovered evidence that the number of wounded are being
under-reported, including new restrictions placed on medical personnel
preventing them from disclosing such information.
If both the Yediot Ahronot and Haaretz reporting are accurate, this would
indicate a dramatic increase in the number of Israeli wounded since the
collapse of the ceasefire on 1 December.
However, it is unclear that this is the case, as there has not been a
similar increase in the number of fatal Israeli casualties.
According to Israeli data, 421 soldiers have been killed since 7 October.
This compares to 392 fatalities reported before the ceasefire in late November.
Meanwhile, nearly 17,000 people in Gaza have been killed and about 50,000
people injured, almost 70 percent of them women and children.
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