Gaza War: Israel’s Army Has Already Lost the Equivalent of 12 Battalions

By Michael Pröbsting, Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 9 October 2024

www.thecommunists.net

The Israeli daily “Calcalist” has published a highly interesting article about the losses which the army
did suffer in its year-long war of annihilation against the Palestinian people in Gaza. According to the
author, the military expert Yuval Azoulay, more than 700 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 11,000
have been injured, in various degrees, since the beginning of the war. He adds: “According to the
Ministry of Defense’s rehabilitation department, every month the number of wounded soldiers
increases by about 1,000.” 1
The author calls these losses – and particularly the number of injured – “unprecedented”. He
concludes: “This is the highest number of wounded that the IDF has known in any other war in its
history, and in a way that affects the status of its forces, since it is on the order of the magnitude of
about 12 battalions that were taken away from it.”
Azoulay also notes that because of these losses and the small size of the army, Israel’s military suffers
from exhaustion. “[T]he regular forces and the reserve forces that are going to fight on the northern
front [the border to Lebanon, Ed.] – which is considered much more difficult, large, complex and
challenging – are exhausted from the never-ending war in Gaza.“ He adds that “due to the lack of
regular soldiers, the reserve soldiers (…) are already doing their third or fourth tour of duty in a year.”
Furthermore, the military armory – the tanks, APCs, bulldozers, etc. – “are also worn out”. The army’s
“workshops have been operating around the clock since the outbreak of the war, but any effort to
provide an adequate solution to the enormous mass of these armory is just a drop in the ocean.”
The Calcalist is a well-informed bourgeois newspaper and part of the Yedioth Ahronoth Media Corp. –
Israel’s largest media group. It is a staunch Zionist publication. Actually, one of Netanyahu’s corruption
cases is based on secret recordings of conversations between the Prime Minister and publisher and
controlling owner of Yedioth Ahronoth, Arnon Mozes, about a potential deal in which the newspaper
would provide better coverage of Netanyahu in exchange for the government limiting the circulation of
competitor Israel Hayom. In other words, the Calcalist is above suspicion of being an “anti-Israeli
publication” and, hence, its report about the critical state of the Zionist army is particularly noteworthy.
This sobering report shows that the Israeli army – despite its huge military-technological superiority,
despite the unlimited supply of U.S. weapons and money – has suffered huge losses in its barbarian
war against the Palestinian people in the small enclave of Gaza (with a geographical size and
population similar to the city of Vienna).
Sure, Israel’s army is highly successful in slaughtering the Palestinians and committing one of the
worst genocides in modern history. For one year, it can bomb and kill at will and repeatedly expel the
native population. Still, for all its superiority, the Zionist monster still has not managed to defeat the
Palestinian resistance!
Their situation will hardly get better as the Israeli army also tries now, in addition to Gaza, to conquer
the southern part of Lebanon and to start a full-scale against Iran!
The severe losses of Israel’s army are a result of the determined struggle of the Palestinian resistance
– those thousands of courageous and selfless fighters who sacrifice everything in order to defend their
land and their people. These are heroes no less than the Algerian or the Vietnamese liberation
fighters. Irrespective of our criticism on their ideology or their tactics, they deserve respect and support
for their cause of defending Palestine! 2
1 יובל אזולאי: צה”ל מגיע למערכה בצפון מותש: איבד בשנה סד”כ של 12 גדודים, 29.09.2024,
https://www.calcalist.co.il/local_news/article/syyw5nbr0. All quotes and figures are from this article if not indicated
otherwise. The translation is ours.
2 We refer readers to the special pages on our website where all RCIT documents on the 2023-24 Gaza War are
compiled, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/compilation-of-articles-on-the-gaza-
uprising-2023/ and https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/compilation-of-articles-on-
the-gaza-uprising-2023-24-part-2/.

If the corrupted tyrants of the Arab states or the coward leaders of Western trade unions would
possess just 1% – only a single percent! – of the Palestinians’ courage and determination, the Zionist
occupation would have already collapsed like a house of cards!
Victory to the Palestinian resistance! Defeat Israel!

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