Total tonnage of bombs dropped on Gaza since Oct 7 until today’s date?

1. What the major public claims say, summarized

Official and quasi-official statements have produced several headline figures: a Gaza media office and Palestinian authorities have repeatedly asserted totals at or above 100,000 tonnes of explosives since October 7, 2023 ^{[6] [5] [7]}, the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority and multiple outlets reported figures in the ~85,000 tonnes range in late 2024 ^{[4] [8] [9]}, Euro-Med and other monitors put earlier estimates in the 70,000-tonne range ^{[3] [8]}, an UN Fourth Committee chair cited “over 25,000 tons” of explosives dropped “since early this year” in that committee’s briefing ^[2], while a Gaza media office at one point issued a much lower figure of about 12,000 tonnes in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attack ^[1].

2. Why the estimates diverge: sources, methods and agendas

The spread owes to differing methods and institutional perspectives: some tallies appear to be aggregations based on munitions counts or national reports and environmental-impact calculations (the Environmental Quality Authority’s claim is an example) and are advanced by Palestinian governmental or advocacy bodies with an interest in documenting damage ^{[4] [8]}, UN speakers and special committees frame figures to underline humanitarian urgency ^[2], independent commentators and aggregators publish updated totals over time ^[10], and some media summaries quote Gaza’s media office or government statements as authoritative ^{[6] [5]}; each actor brings differing data access, methodological transparency and implicit agendas, which helps explain why numbers escalate from tens of thousands to claims of 100,000+ tonnes.

3. Limits of verification in the available reporting

None of the supplied sources provides a detailed, independently verifiable accounting of every munition type, weight or delivery method that would allow an audit-quality total as of 12 January 2026; central open sources either give headline aggregated totals without raw data or are themselves secondary reports quoting institutional claims ^{[2] [4] [5] [10]}. Reporting also mixes “tons” and “tonnes” and sometimes equates explosive yield with historical analogies (Hiroshima comparisons), further complicating technical comparisons, and Wikipedia’s note about weapons transfers (e.g., U.S. transfers of tens of thousands of bombs) points to supply but not a reconciled tonnage dropped on target ^[11].

4. Plausible range and the responsible answer

Given the material reviewed, the responsible journalistic answer is a range rather than a single definitive number: the documented public claims cluster between roughly 12,000 tonnes on the low end and 100,000 tonnes and above on the high end, with recurrent mid-range reports of ~70,000–85,000 tonnes cited through late 2024 and into 2025 ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [10]}. Any narrower figure would require transparent methodology (munitions-by-type × typical explosive weight, strike logs, or verified chain-of-custody data) that the provided sources do not supply ^{[11] [12]}.

5. What to watch for next and why it matters

Future authoritative closure would come from transparent, third‑party munitions tallies or declassified operational logs cross-checked against ordnance weights and independent satellite/forensic analysis; until then, headline totals should be read as claims that reflect varying institutional aims — humanitarian alarm-raising, environmental impact advocacy, or governmental messaging — and not as a single forensic audit ^{[2] [4] [8] [12]}. The human and environmental stakes tied to even the lower-end estimates are repeatedly emphasized across UN and NGO reporting, which is why multiple actors continue to publicize escalating totals ^{[2] [12]}.