Operation Cast Lead: Lowest Ratio of Civlian To Combatant Deaths In History Of Warfare

Jonathan Sacerdoti, director of the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy, writes in The New Statesman that one of overlooked facts of Israel's Operation Cast Lead is the low ratio of civilian to combatant deaths:

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British troops in Afghanistan, has repeatedly commented that, "during its operation in Gaza, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare." Furthermore, he points out that the steps taken in that conflict by the Israeli Defence Forces to avoid civilian deaths are shown by a study published by the United Nations to have resulted in, by far, the lowest ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in any asymmetric conflict in the history of warfare.


Kemp explains that by UN estimates, the average ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in such conflicts worldwide is 3:1 -- three civilians for every combatant killed. That is the estimated ratio in Afghanistan. But in Iraq, and in Kosovo, it was worse: the ratio is believed to have been 4:1. Anecdotal evidence suggests the ratios were very much higher in Chechnya and Serbia. In Gaza, it was less than one-to-one.

And the care with which Israel tries to avoid civilian casualties continued this past year as well:

Since the 22-day Gaza operation, Israel has also been demonstrably fastidious in its efforts to protect civilian lives while targeting combatants. The Israel correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly sites Israel's record this year, saying "the IDF killed 100 Gazans in 2011. Nine were civilians. That is a civilian-combatant ratio of nearly 1:10."

Bottom line: While war is something to be avoided, Israel's Operation Cast Lead "featured the lowest ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in any asymmetric conflict in the history of warfare."

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas and Operation Cast Lead.