Three years of war, 100,000 targets struck: IDF releases new conflict data

Smoke billows above Beirut's southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Photo by Fadel ITANI / AFP) (Photo by FADEL ITANI/AFP via Getty Images)

JERSUALEM — The Israel Defense Forces struck 100,000 targets over three years of war on multiple fronts, the Israeli military said in a release of data marking the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks.

The IDF does not define what a “target” means in this context, but the size of the figure, which includes strikes in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran, shows the breadth of conflict Israel has waged since the Hamas terrorist attacks upended the region. The data release also included information on new units formed during the war and the changes in IDF reserve forces, as Israel has had to adapt its military structures on the fly.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of strikes were in Gaza, where the IDF claims it has struck 65,000 targets, with around 30,000 of these in just the first three months of the conflict — a pace that shows in the widespread destruction of buildings and displacement of the population that was evident quickly after the war began.

Outside Gaza, the IDF said Israel also struck 28,000 targets in Lebanon and Syria, as well as 4,500 in Iran and 80 in Yemen. The Iran targets were struck during a 12-day conflict in June 2025 , as well as an exchange of fire on Feb. 28 , 2026. Syria, for its part, has become more outspoken in recent weeks about what it says are Israeli violations within Syrian territory near the Golan.

The IDF has also increased its tempo of operations in the West Bank. It says it has confiscated 3,800 weapons and arrested “45,000 wanted individuals.”

The IDF believes it has eliminated four Hamas military branch heads, as well as 17 Hamas brigade commanders, 60 battalion commanders and 300 company commanders. This means most of Hamas’ five brigades and 24 battalions have seen their commanders eliminated several times in the war.

A total of 970 Israeli soldiers and service personnel have fallen in the war. This is in addition to more than 800 civilians killed on Oct. 7. Overall Palestinian casualty figures were not included in the new dataset, but Israel has reportedly accepted assertions by Gaza’s health ministry that over 70,000 have been killed. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants.

Additionally, the new figures show that Israel’s missile defenses were sorely tested over the last three years: The IDF said that approximately 31,540 projectiles were launched at Israel from multiple fronts, including approximately 10,200 from Gaza, 20,000 from Lebanon, 1,200 from Iran, 50 from Syria, and 90 from Yemen. While the IDF does not release interception rates, during the recent conflict with Iran local reports put the success rate at 92 percent.

The new data are the latest in several data sets that the IDF released throughout the war. The IDF’s first data set was released after three months of conflict, but a link to its appears to have been taken down. The Israeli Air Force said that by February 2024 it had struck 31,000 targets, and the IDF released data sets for six months of war in April 2024 and nine months of conflict in July 2024. However, since then the military appeared to stop releasing this type of data until this week’s milestone.

Breaking Defense’s team has been on the ground during the conflicts. Read some of their personal reflections here:

In South Lebanon, empty villages, ruined crops and fears of what comes next (June 2024)

In Northern Israel, emptied villages and talk of war in Lebanon (June 2024)

What life looks like in Lebanon after 1 year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel (October 2024)

Modernizing The Military

The data release also emphasized how the war has caused major changes within the Israeli military.

One lesson is that the IDF needs more ground forces to confront threats on multiple fronts, a reversal of a decade in which Israel had been reducing the ground forces and focusing more on technological innovation and small units.

The IDF notes that it created several new brigades and divisions, including a new Mountain Brigade on the northern border and a new division to coordinate defense of the Jordan Valley. The IDF also expanded its armored corps with new regular service tank companies. In addition, the IDF said it “has worked to expand its personnel pool and establish new frameworks in accordance with operational needs that have emerged during combat.” This includes new unspecified units within the intelligence and air defense sectors.

A second lesson is the need to manage the reserve forces in a long conflict. When the Oct. 7 war began, the IDF called up hundreds of thousands of reservists, many of whom spent most of the next year with their units. One IDF Division, the 162nd, spent 500 days in combat. The long war led to fatigue and challenges within the ranks, including a major strain on the reserve system that sustains Israel’s operations.

The latest military data says that “since the beginning of the war, the size of the reserve forces has increased by approximately 36%. … The scale of reserve mobilization remains unprecedented, with combat reservists serving an average of 80–100 days annually, significantly exceeding the originally planned average of 55 days due to evolving operational requirements.”

The Israeli military has also sought to implement reforms across its various branches due to the lessons of three years of conflict.

The IDF Intelligence Directorate has prioritized early warning of attacks, according to the release. Although the changes are discussed generally by the IDF, they relate to intelligence collection as well as new warning operations rooms and new training for analysts. The IDF also put in place new oversight and a new data division within the directorate that will integrate artificial intelligence and advanced computing.

The regional commands have also changed. Southern Command, which was in charge of the Gaza border during the Oct. 7 disaster, has strengthened defenses along the border. It has also led the war’s strikes on Hamas commanders. In Northern Command, which has dealt with the war on Hezbollah and also has led the advance into a buffer zone in Syria, the IDF says it has created 10 new military posts in Syria. Local civilian-led armed security squads have tripled in size.

Reforms have also affected the air force and navy. The IDF says the air force now has four times the number of forces on alert, a direct lessons learned from Oct. 7, when the air force had only a small number of helicopters and assets ready to respond. The navy has also increased its coastal defenses and integrated patrol vessels with the ground forces.

Overall, the reforms emphasize forward defense, faster response times, and operational changes in the field, along with bolstering defenses and new technologies. The military also stresses the need to be prepared for “multi-arena” responses, clearly tailored to the kind of multi-front war Israel has faced.

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2024年11月26日，以色列空袭贝鲁特南部郊区后，浓烟滚滚升起。当时以色列与真主党之间的战争仍在持续。（图片来源：法德尔·伊塔尼/法新社）（图片来源：法德尔·伊塔尼/法新社，经由盖蒂图片社提供）

耶路撒冷——以色列军方在一份纪念2023年10月7日恐怖袭击事件三周年的声明中表示，在长达三年的多条战线上，以色列国防军打击了10万个目标。

以色列国防军并未明确定义此处“目标”的含义，但这份涵盖黎巴嫩、叙利亚、也门和伊朗等地空袭行动的数字表明，自哈马斯恐怖袭击颠覆该地区以来，以色列发动的冲突范围之广。此次公布的数据还包括战争期间组建的新部队以及以色列国防军预备役部队的变动情况，因为以色列不得不根据实际情况调整其军事结构。

不出所料，大部分空袭都发生在加沙。以色列国防军声称已对加沙 65,000 个目标发动了袭击，其中约 30,000 个目标是在冲突爆发后的前三个月内发动的——战争开始后不久，建筑物遭到大范围破坏，民众流离失所，这种速度可见一斑。

以色列国防军称，除加沙地带外，以色列还袭击了黎巴嫩和叙利亚境内的28000个目标，以及伊朗境内的4500个和也门境内的80个目标。对伊朗目标的袭击发生在2025年6月为期12天的冲突中，以及2026年2月28日的交火中。叙利亚方面则在最近几周更加公开地谴责以色列在戈兰高地附近叙利亚领土上的侵犯行为。

以色列国防军也加大了在西岸的军事行动力度。据称，他们缴获了3800件武器，并逮捕了“45000名通缉犯”。

以色列国防军认为，他们已经消灭了哈马斯的四名军事分支头目，以及17名哈马斯旅长、60名营长和300名连长。这意味着哈马斯的五个旅和24个营中的大多数，其指挥官在战争中都曾多次被消灭。

截至目前，已有970名以色列士兵和军人在战争中阵亡。此外，10月7日当天还有800多名平民丧生。新的数据集并未包含巴勒斯坦方面的伤亡总数，但据报道，以色列已接受加沙卫生部的说法，即已有超过7万人死亡。该卫生部并未区分平民和武装分子。

此外，最新数据显示，以色列的导弹防御系统在过去三年经受了严峻考验：以色列国防军称，约有31540枚导弹从多个方向射向以色列，其中包括约10200枚来自加沙、20000枚来自黎巴嫩、1200枚来自伊朗、50枚来自叙利亚以及90枚来自也门。虽然以色列国防军不公布拦截率，但在最近与伊朗的冲突中，当地报道称拦截成功率高达92%。

这些新数据是以色列国防军在战争期间发布的多组数据中的最新一组。以色列国防军的第一组数据是在冲突爆发三个月后发布的，但其链接似乎已被移除。以色列空军表示，截至2024年2月，他们已打击了31000个目标。以色列国防军分别于2024年4月和7月发布了六个月战争和九个月冲突的数据。然而，自那以后，军方似乎停止了发布此类数据，直到本周这一里程碑事件发生。

Breaking Defense团队在冲突期间一直身处一线。请阅读他们的一些个人感想：

黎巴嫩南部，空荡荡的村庄，被毁的庄稼，以及对未来（2024年6月）的恐惧

以色列北部村庄空无一人，黎巴嫩战事一触即发（2024年6月）

黎巴嫩在真主党与以色列冲突一年后的生活景象（2024年10月）

军队现代化

此次数据发布还强调了战争如何给以色列军队内部带来了重大变化。

其中一个教训是，以色列国防军需要更多地面部队来应对多线威胁，这与过去十年以色列削减地面部队、更加注重技术创新和小规模部队的做法截然相反。

以色列国防军指出，已组建多个新的旅和师，包括北部边境的新山地旅和负责协调约旦河谷防御的新师。以色列国防军还扩充了装甲部队，新增了正规坦克连。此外，以色列国防军表示，“已努力扩充人员储备，并根据作战过程中出现的需要建立新的架构”。这其中包括情报和防空部门内一些未具体说明的新单位。

第二个教训是，在长期冲突中管理预备役部队至关重要。10月7日战争爆发时，以色列国防军征召了数十万预备役人员，其中许多人在接下来的近一年时间里都与部队并肩作战。以色列国防军第162师的作战时间长达500天。这场旷日持久的战争导致部队疲惫不堪，并引发了诸多挑战，其中就包括对维持以色列军事行动的预备役系统造成了巨大压力。

最新的军事数据显示，“自战争开始以来，预备役部队规模增加了约36%。……预备役动员的规模仍然是前所未有的，战斗预备役人员平均每年服役80至100天，由于作战需求不断变化，大大超过了最初计划的平均55天。”

吸取了三年冲突的教训，以色列军方也寻求在其各个部门推行改革。

根据新闻稿，以色列国防军情报局已将袭击预警列为优先事项。尽管以色列国防军对这些变化的讨论较为笼统，但这些变化主要涉及情报收集、新的预警行动中心以及分析人员的新培训。以色列国防军还在情报局内部设立了新的监督机制和数据部门，该部门将整合人工智能和先进计算技术。

各区域指挥部也进行了调整。在10月7日灾难期间负责加沙边境的南方司令部加强了边境防御，并主导了对哈马斯指挥官的打击行动。北方司令部负责打击真主党，并领导了向叙利亚缓冲区推进的行动。以色列国防军称，北方司令部已在叙利亚境内新建了10个军事哨所。当地由平民领导的武装安全部队规模也扩大了三倍。

改革也影响到了空军和海军。以色列国防军表示，空军目前的警戒部队数量是之前的四倍，这是从10月7日事件中吸取的直接教训。当时，空军只有少量直升机和装备处于待命状态。海军也加强了海岸防御，并将巡逻舰艇与地面部队整合起来。

总体而言，这些改革强调前沿防御、更快的反应速度和战场作战方式的变革，同时加强防御力量并引进新技术。军方还强调需要做好应对“多领域”作战的准备，这显然是针对以色列所面临的多线作战类型而量身定制的。

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