It is commonly stated and believed by most that Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on earth, even the most densely populated! In fact this is not true! According to readily available statistics, Gaza is no more densely populated than any large city, for example it has roughly the same density of population as London, and is less than that of Paris.
Gaza’s population density is about 5,500 people per square kilometer. But this is much less than other entities, such as Macao (China) that is the most densely populated place on earth with a density of over 21,000 ppsk. Other places that have a greater density of population than Gaza are Monaco (18,500), Singapore (7,800), Hong Kong (7,000) and Gibraltar (6,000).
Now why bother to quote these figures? Because it is often stated in relation to Israel’s coutner-attacks on Gaza that it is the most densely populated place on earth and that means that the IDF is killing more civilians. This is simply not true. The Hamas Ministry of Health gives ca. 20,000 for the current total of deaths of civilians in Gaza, but they give NO figures for Hamas terrorists killed by the IDF, which are in fact the target of their attacks. If we take the current Israeli estimate of Hamas terrorists killed as 8,000, plus ca. 1,300 killed in Israel on Oct. 7-8, that makes ca. 9,300 killed, meaning the actual figure for Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza is probably at most 10,000.
You may consider this a lot, but consider that the civilian population overwhelmingly support Hamas, that they also attacked the Israeli villages on Oct 7 and murdered civilians, that they celebrated the Hamas “victory” on Oct 7 and they are also involved in the fighting. The IDF has been surprised not only by the greater extent of the tunnels than they had expected, but also by the general distribution of weapons that they find in almost every apartment and house. Under the circumstances the civilian toll in Gaza is a lot less than the civilian toll exacted by US military actions in Iraq (ca. 100,000 killed) and Afghanistan (ca. 70,000 killed).
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