A joint investigation by +972 Magazine, Local Call and the Guardian has obtained figures from a classified Israeli military-intelligence database indicating that five out of every six Palestinians killed in Gaza have been civilians. The database, maintained by the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate (Aman), recorded 8,900 named Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters as either confirmed (7,330) or probably (1,570) dead as of May 2025. When compared with the Gaza Health Ministry’s overall death toll of 53,000 at the same point, the numbers imply that about 83 percent of those killed were non-combatants. The leaked dataset also lists 47,653 individuals the army regards as members of militant wings, suggesting that the IDF believes the vast majority of those it considers combatants remain alive. The civilian share of fatalities far exceeds the 1:1 or 2:1 civilian-to-militant ratios repeatedly cited by Israeli political and military leaders, who at times have claimed that as many as 20,000 militants had been killed. Asked about the figures, the Israeli military did not dispute the existence of the database but said the numbers reported "are incorrect" and "do not reflect the data available in the IDF’s systems," without providing alternative statistics. Earlier statements issued to Israeli lawmakers and international media have varied widely, reflecting what intelligence sources quoted by the investigation describe as inflated field reports and unverified categorisation of civilian deaths as militant casualties. Independent conflict researchers say the ratio is extraordinary for a prolonged modern war. Therése Pettersson of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program noted that such a high civilian proportion has been recorded only in a handful of mass-atrocity contexts since 1989. Rights groups argued the findings reinforce allegations that Israel’s campaign in Gaza has disregarded the principle of distinction under international humanitarian law.