How many Israeli soldiers were killed or missing on October 7 2023?
Executive summary
Israeli authorities and multiple data compilations put the number of Israeli security personnel killed on October 7, 2023 in the low-to-mid hundreds: official and media tallies published in late 2023 and summarized by later compendia report roughly 270–373 security-force deaths on that day, with broader counts of total Israeli dead on Oct. 7 near 1,200 (including civilians and security forces) [1] [2] [3]. Sources disagree on exact breakdowns because of differing data sets (social-security records, IDF lists, police rolls) and on whether some combat deaths occurred in the immediate aftermath rather than during the initial assault [4] [5] [2].
1. What the main sources say — competing tallies
Israeli media and official releases early on published rolling figures: The Times of Israel recorded that the IDF had published names totaling 922 soldiers, officers and reservists killed “during the ongoing war since October 7,” and noted that about 331 of those died on the border during the October 7 assault (not all necessarily on that single day) [4]. Aggregations used social-security records to produce a Dec. 2023 breakdown that listed 1,139 deaths tied to the October 7 attacks including 373 security-force members — a number that multiple secondary sources reproduce [2] [6]. Other contemporaneous media reporting compiled an “identified” toll of 274 soldiers and 859 non‑soldiers killed on Oct. 7, a lower soldier figure than the social‑security-derived 373 [1].
2. Why numbers differ — different data sets and definitions
Discrepancies stem from three clear differences in source methodology: (a) which deaths are counted as occurring “on October 7” versus during the immediate aftermath and clearing operations; (b) whether counts include off‑duty soldiers who were killed as civilians (for example at the Supernova music festival) or only uniformed personnel killed in combat; and (c) whether social‑security records that list fatalities by date are used instead of IDF or police published name-lists, which can lag or have different inclusion rules [5] [1] [2].
3. Social‑security data vs. military lists — the December reconciliation
A December 2023 social‑security dataset widely cited by media produced an overall Oct. 7 death figure of 1,139 (695 civilians, 71 foreign nationals, 373 security forces), and this dataset is the basis for several encyclopedic summaries [6] [2]. France24/AFP reporting that used national insurance data reported 305 soldiers killed in fighting to regain control of southern Israel (a slightly different slice), underscoring how aggregators using the same administrative files still interpret them differently [5].
4. The frequently quoted “about 1,200” total and its relation to soldier counts
Israel officially revised an early estimate of 1,400 dead down to roughly 1,200 for the Oct. 7 assault; that total is often used as the headline figure for the overall toll that day and is separate from internal debates over the exact soldier component [3]. Within that roughly 1,200 figure, sources allocate a few hundred deaths to soldiers depending on the dataset: for example, one media compilation lists 274 soldiers identified among the victims, while social‑security aggregates list 373 security‑force deaths [1] [2].
5. Later summaries and military accounting — tracking cumulative war losses
Subsequent IDF and analytical summaries of the war distinguish October 7 fatalities from later combat losses. Some post‑2023 accounts focus on cumulative military deaths across the campaign and give different snapshots (for instance counts of several hundred soldiers killed during the ground campaign starting Oct. 27), reinforcing that the soldier‑on‑Oct‑7 question sits inside a moving, year‑long accounting effort [7] [8].
6. What is certain and what remains unsettled
Available sources consistently show that several hundred members of Israel’s security services were killed in the Oct. 7 attack and its immediate aftermath and that total Israeli deaths that day were roughly 1,200 [2] [3]. Sources diverge, however, on the precise soldier figure — published tallies range from about 274 identified soldiers in one Times of Israel compilation to social‑security–based counts of about 373 security personnel — because of differing inclusion rules and timing [1] [2]. Official IDF name‑lists and government portals exist but are compiled under different criteria and at different times; reconciliation across them is incomplete in the sources provided (p1_s1; [9] — page noted but not described in source set).
Limitations: this analysis uses only the supplied documents. Available sources do not mention a single universally accepted, day‑of‑Oct‑7 soldier total; instead they present multiple, overlapping tallies derived from different administrative and journalistic methods [5] [2].