A total of 363 Israeli soldiers were killed in 2024, according to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) data published at the end of the year. Overall, 891 IDF personnel have fallen, most of them in combat, since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s war against Hamas grew dramatically in 2024 to include expanded operations with other adversaries on distinct fronts. The largest new operation was Northern Arrows, a combined air and ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon that began on September 23 and resulted in a ceasefire on November 27. The IDF also carried out four rounds of strikes on the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen and wide-ranging airstrikes in Syria as the Syrian regime collapsed on December 8.
The war that began on October 7, 2023, has become one of Israel’s most difficult and longest conflicts. While Israel has fought long wars in the past, such as the conflict in Lebanon that began after the IDF’s invasion in 1982, and the low-intensity conflict against terrorists in the West Bank that goes back many decades, the war in Gaza has been much larger by various metrics. For instance, the Gaza conflict has usually involved up to five IDF divisions. Even when fighting became less intense in many periods of 2024, up to three divisions were still deployed in Gaza.
For example, in October, the IDF launched a major operation in northern Gaza aimed at clearing terrorists from Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahiya. Led by the 162nd Division, this effort resulted in thousands of suspected terrorists being eliminated and detained. Meanwhile, the IDF also maintained two brigades in the Netzarim Corridor south of Gaza City, and there are also Israeli forces in Rafah and near the Egyptian border in southern Gaza. The IDF’s Gaza Division, which used to be responsible for securing the Gaza’s border with two brigades, has now played a key role in offensive operations in southern and northern Gaza in addition to areas along the border.
The Israel Defense Forces’ latest data reveals that 891 IDF soldiers died in 2023 and 2024. Of those deaths, 558 were killed in 2024. Many of the fallen were killed during and in the immediate days after Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023. For example, IDF data shows that 435 individuals were killed on October 7 and in the two weeks before Israel’s ground operation into Gaza began on October 27, 2023, illustrating the very high cost of Hamas’s initial attack. A total of 390 soldiers have been killed since Israel launched its ground maneuver in Gaza, with 61 of those individuals falling in the last months of 2023.
Of the 363 IDF soldiers who died in 2024, the military says that 295 were killed in fighting on various fronts. Twenty-one soldiers died from suicide in 2024, compared to 17 in 2023. Reservists have been hit hardest by suicide, with 14 taking their own lives in 2024. All of them were men, according to the data.
The IDF provides support for soldiers through a hotline and hundreds of deployed mental health officers. However, the IDF has had to contend with the complexities of a long war that saw 300,000 reservists called up, with some serving around 10 months of the last 14 months of war. According to The Jerusalem Post,the last time the number of suicides among troops was this high was at the end of the Second Intifada and the year of Disengagement from Gaza in 2005.
Soldiers have also died in accidents—17 due to car crashes in 2024. In addition, 13 soldiers died of various natural causes, including illnesses, in 2024.
The IDF has also seen 5,569 soldiers wounded since the October 7 attack, with 815 seriously injured. The ability to rush medical aid to the front and new procedures and technology that quickly provide blood and plasma to wounded personnel have saved hundreds of lives, according to IDF estimates published earlier in 2024.
