U.S. intelligence agencies, according to the Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/hamas-toll-thus-far-falls-short-of-israels-war-aims-u-s-says-d1c43164) yesterday estimated that Israel has killed between just 20% and 30% of Hamas’ fighters in Gaza. Washington previously had estimated that Hamas had 25-30,000 fighters, along with thousands of territory police force members. A US official told the WSJ that, in addition to the estimated 5,000 to 9,000 dead militants, another 10,500 to 11,700 Hamas fighters have been wounded.
Israel’s own estimates have placed the starting number of Hamas fighters higher, at 30,000 or more, and credited the Israel Defense Forces with killing more members of the group—9,000 during the war plus another 1,000 during the raid that preceded it. Its estimate of 16,000 wounded Palestinian militants was also notably higher, as was its claim regarding the seriousness of those wounds—half of the injured won’t be fighting anymore, a senior Israeli military official told the WSJ.
