How badly has Israel bled since last October 7

As Israel marks a year of the October 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists, pro-Gaza protests are taking place in several cities of the world. In that single day, 1,200 were killed in Israel and 251 kidnapped. Israel struck back at Hamas with vengeance, and has been accused of using disproportionate force in Gaza. However, the tiny nation with a big resolve has also been bleeding profusely since the last one year. The toll in Gaza is huge.

On October 6, the eve of the anniversary of the Hamas attack, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) published detailed data on the losses Israel suffered and its operational successes.

OCTOBER 7 AND THE LOSS OF LIFE

According to the IDF data, 726 Israeli soldiers were killed and 4,576 were injured since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023.

The number is of "the war dead whose names were allowed to be published," said the IDF website. It also said that 56 soldiers were killed in operational accidents in the last one year.

The attacks of October 7 saw Israel pound Gaza, which is the base of Hamas and administered by it.

The IDF said that it had eliminated 17,000 terrorists in the offensive in the Gaza Strip. Of those killed, about eight were of the rank of Brigadier General and above, while 30 were of Major General.

The IDF also said that it had hit 40,300 targets in aerial strikes in the Gaza Strip, and 4,900 targets in the Lebanon-area. In the Gaza Strip, Israel managed to destroy over 1,000 launch sites and teleporters.

The IDF offensive in Lebanon was targeted at Iran-backed terror outfit Hezbollah, which has fired over 8,000 rockets into Israel since October 7, 2023.

IRAN ORCHESTRATED STRIKE TO BREAK SAUDI ARABIA AND ISRAEL DEAL

The Israeli airstrikes and ground offensive in Lebanon have killed around 1,800 people and turned 1.2 million refugees.

The human catastrophe in the Gaza Strip is gut-wrenching.

Over 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the Israeli offensive in the last one year, according to the Hamas-backed Gaza health ministry. Millions of Gazans have been rendered homeless.

The Middle East has been plunged into a crisis by the Hamas attack on October 7. Experts believe it was orchestrated by Iran, using its proxy Hamas to scuttle an imminent historic deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel that would have helped the two normalise ties.

The deal between the Sunni powerhouse and the Jewish nation was put on the back burner.

ECONOMIC COST OF WAR

Not just diplomatic ties, the war has been bleeding Israel economically too.

Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron warned in May that the war with Hamas is likely to cost the Jewish nation around $67 billion between 2023 and 2025.

Almost half of the war expenditure, around $32 billion, would be on defence needs and $10 billion for civilian spending, including on rehabilitation, until 2025.

“This is certainly a budgetary burden. In addition, the future defense budget is expected to grow on a permanent basis, with macroeconomic impact,” Yaron said, according to a Times of Israel report.

The May estimate was an increase from the $56 billion that was believed to be the war cost earlier in 2024.

Israel has also seen downgrades of its credit ratings. This, according to a Reuters report, are "amplifying economic effects that could reverberate for years". It also reported that the "cost of insuring Israel's debt against default was near a 12-year high and its budget deficit was ballooning".

A war is a costly affair, both in terms of human lives and economics. The tragedy is that the October 7 massacre, in a controversial Arab-Israeli history, was thrust upon Israel. Millions of Palestinians are suffering. And Israel, which has been accused of disproportionate response to October 7, has been bleeding profusely since the last one year.

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