How many Palestinians have been killed in conflicts with Israel since 1948 by year?
Executive summary
Comprehensive, year-by-year fatality tallies for Palestinians since 1948 are not provided in the available sources; modern, systematic counting in the public record begins in the sources around 2000–2008 and is compiled by UN OCHA, B’Tselem and research projects (notably OCHA’s tracking since 2008 and datasets for 2000–present) [1] [2] [3]. Different sources use different methods and time windows: OCHA has tracked deaths in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2008 [1], B’Tselem and projects such as IsraelPalestineTimeline compile counts since 2000 [3] [4], and some secondary aggregators (Statista, Wikipedia) summarize these datasets with their own framing [5] [6].
1. Why a single, continuous 1948–present per‑year list does not appear in these sources
None of the supplied documents offers an authoritative, continuous annual series of Palestinian deaths covering every year from 1948 to today. The UN OCHA resource explicitly reports casualties "since 2008" for the Occupied Palestinian Territory and defines narrowly which incidents it counts (for example excluding deaths not arising from direct confrontations) [1]. B’Tselem’s database focuses on killings since the start of the Second Intifada in 2000 and related incidents [3]. Broader historical summaries and encyclopedic pages (Wikipedia, Jewish Virtual Library) include disparate totals and periodized fatality estimates but do not provide a single harmonized, year-by-year table from 1948 onward in the sources given [6] [7].
2. What the main sources do provide and how they differ
UN OCHA provides systematically compiled casualty data for the OPT starting in 2008 with clear inclusion rules and categories (major hostilities, search/arrest operations, protests, etc.) [1]. B’Tselem offers incident-level records and tallies focused on post‑2000 violence and is widely cited for trends in the Second Intifada forward [3] [4]. Statista and other secondary charts cite OCHA’s post‑2008 counts and summarize that OCHA-recorded Palestinian deaths through 2020 were about 5,600 [5]. Wikipedia entries synthesize many sources but mix time periods and can reflect contested or evolving figures [6] [8].
3. Recent high‑profile counting disputes (post‑2023) and methodological pitfalls
The 2023–2025 Gaza war produced multiple, widely divergent totals because health authorities in Gaza, the Israeli government, UN agencies, and independent researchers use different methodologies and access levels. For example, media summaries cite Gaza health ministry claims (tens of thousands killed in 2023–2025) while UN verification uses a narrower methodology; Reuters reported Palestinian health authorities saying more than 67,000 were killed in the two‑year campaign as of Oct. 7, 2025, while noting UN verification shows different shares of children/women and flags methodological issues [9]. Statista’s aggregations also report large 2023–25 totals and separate West Bank counts [10]. These divergences show the challenge of producing a single definitive yearly series: sources disagree on who counts as a combatant versus civilian, on geographic scope, and on inclusion of indirect deaths [9] [10].
4. How to approach building a year‑by‑year series if you need one
Given the gaps in the supplied sources, a reliable year‑by‑year series would require: selecting one primary dataset and using its definitions consistently (e.g., OCHA for OPT since 2008 or B’Tselem for 2000–present) [1] [3]; explicitly noting coverage limitations (unrecorded earlier decades, differing definitions) [1]; and treating later, high‑intensity years (2023–25) with caution because multiple competing tallies exist [9] [10]. The sources provided do not permit constructing an accurate 1948–present annual table without further historical compilations not included here (not found in current reporting).
5. Bottom line and recommended next steps
Available sources do not publish a continuous per‑year Palestinian fatality list from 1948 to present; they do offer reliable, method‑documented series for narrower windows (OCHA since 2008; B’Tselem and others since 2000) and conflicting high‑intensity counts for 2023–25 [1] [3] [9]. If you want a year‑by‑year table, decide which source and period you accept (OCHA for 2008–present, B’Tselem/IsraelPalestineTimeline for 2000–present) and I can extract and format that series from the chosen dataset; note that constructing 1948–1999 requires additional historical sources not supplied here (not found in current reporting).