Israel Says it Killed 5,000 Fighters in Gaza War on Hamas

Israeli forces have killed more then 5,000 enemy combatants and at least 10,000 civilians so far in its war with Hamas in Gaza, a senior Israeli defense official said Monday.

The latest assessment from Israel of the total toll is roughly in line with the number of deaths in Gaza reported by the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, which has said more than 15,200 people have died since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel. The ministry has not said how many of the dead are fighters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will continue the war until it destroys Hamas's military capacity and the militant group releases all of the hostages it took from Israel in its attack, but the Israeli government faces growing international pressure over rising civilian deaths.

The 5,000 fighters Israel says it has killed would represent roughly one fifth of the 25,000 fighters Hamas is believed to have had in Gaza at the start of the war, according to several Israeli sources. Some outside analysts have said the number could have been 40,000 or higher.

Another Israel Defense Forces official said Monday the war would not end soon.

"We understand that this is going to be a long haul," Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, the Israeli military's international spokesperson, told a small group of reporters Monday at a briefing at the IDF's Southern Command headquarters.

The fighting has been largely confined to northern Gaza. But Israel expanded air strikes in southern Gaza over the weekend after a weeklong ceasefire collapsed.

Israel has also stepped up efforts to urge civilians in southern Gaza to seek shelter and humanitarian aid, through a combination of leaflets, messages and a map showing safe zones in Khan Younis, Rafah and other parts of southern Gaza.

The push comes as the United States has stepped up pressure on Israel to limit civilian casualties as the war continues.

Approximately 1.4 million Gaza residents have been forced to leave their homes since the start of the war, according to an IDF official. Gaza's population is roughly 2.2 million.

Before the ceasefire broke down, Israel had secured the release of 110 of the approximately 240 hostages abducted by Hamas, according to an Israeli government spokesperson. But the release of Israeli and foreign hostages stopped abruptly last week after negotiations between Israel and Hamas broke down.

It's unclear how many of the remaining hostages are in southern Gaza. Israeli officials said they believed that some of them were moved by Hamas or other militant groups from the north to the south after the war began in October.

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