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BBC Verify identified 300 cases in which the Israel Defense Forces stated they were reviewing allegations of harm to civilians or others since the outbreak of the Gaza war, but the outlet’s analysis found that only 28 had published outcomes on the IDF website. A further 18 cases left uncertainty over whether inquiries had concluded, leaving 254 without any public resolution according to the October 2026 examination of more than 60,000 news reports. The review, which involved AI screening followed by manual verification, highlighted that more than 200 of the unresolved incidents included at least one reported death.
Of those 254 incidents without public outcomes, 158 occurred in Gaza, 48 in the occupied West Bank, 32 in Lebanon and 16 either inside Israel or within IDF detention facilities, the BBC Verify report detailed. One of the most serious unresolved matters involves an August 2024 airstrike on the al-Tabi’in school complex in Gaza City, where local civil defence officials reported at least 93 deaths including six women and 11 children. Some of the cases stretch back to late 2023, with the IDF having described many as under review, examination or assessment at various points.
The IDF has stated that it examines every credible allegation with the utmost seriousness. In an August 2026 announcement, the military released findings on five major incidents reviewed by its fact-finding and assessment mechanism, referring two for criminal investigation including the 2024 deaths of five-year-old Hind Rajab along with family members and paramedics attempting a rescue, as well as the March 2025 killings of 15 medical and rescue workers. The other three cases, among them the April 2024 strike on a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven aid workers, were closed without criminal proceedings after the Military Advocate General determined there was no basis for such steps.
Freedom of information data obtained by the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din showed that at least 1,456 Gaza-related incidents were referred to the fact-finding mechanism between October 2023 and August 2024, with only 12 completed reviews forwarded to the Military Advocate General and two resulting in criminal investigations. A monitoring project by Action on Armed Violence examined 52 publicly reported cases through June 2025 that involved 1,303 reported Palestinian deaths and 1,880 injuries, finding that 88 percent were either closed without identifying violations or remained unresolved, with one conviction and five instances of disciplinary action. The fact-finding mechanism had reviewed approximately 150 exceptional operational incidents by mid-2026 according to IDF statements.
A series of reports from the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza including wilful killings and attacks on civilians, while also determining that Israel failed to adequately investigate and prosecute such acts. The commission’s June 2024 assessment and subsequent updates through 2026 attributed responsibility for genocidal acts to Israeli officials and noted the absence of effective accountability measures as a contributing factor. Separate analysis published by The Guardian in 2025, drawing on leaked IDF intelligence data, indicated that named Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters accounted for 17 percent of total deaths recorded by Gaza health authorities as of May that year.
The military’s fact-finding and assessment mechanism was created several years before the current conflict to deliver rapid factual reviews of exceptional incidents for use by commanders and prosecutors. Rights organisations including Yesh Din have tracked these processes over multiple operations and reported consistently low rates of progression to criminal charges in earlier Gaza conflicts as well. The IDF reiterated in response to queries that it operates according to international law and its own directives while taking steps to minimise harm to uninvolved parties.
