Editing Second Intifada (section)

===Combatant versus non-combatant deaths===
{{See also|Civilian casualties in the Second Intifada}}
Regarding the numbers of Israeli civilian versus combatant deaths, [[B'Tselem]] reports that through 30 April 2008 there were 719 Israeli civilians killed and 334 Israeli security force personnel killed.<ref name=casualties/>

[[File:Intifada deaths.svg|thumb|400px|
{|
|-
|{{legend|#093|Israeli total}}
|{{legend|#f90|Palestinian total}}
|-
|{{legend|#90c|Israeli breakdown}}
|{{legend|#933|Palestinian breakdown}}
|}
<br />
The chart is based on '''B'Tselem''' casualty numbers.<ref name=casualties/> It does not include the 577 Palestinians killed by Palestinians.]]
B'Tselem reports<ref name=casualties/> that through 30 April 2008, out of 4,745 Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces, there were 1,671 "Palestinians who took part in the hostilities and were killed by Israeli security forces", or 35.2%. According to their statistics, 2,204 of those killed by Israeli security forces "did not take part in the hostilities", or 46.4%. There were 870 (18.5%) who B'Tselem defines as "Palestinians who were killed by Israeli security forces and it is not known if they were taking part in the hostilities".

The B'Tselem casualties breakdown's reliability was questioned and its methodology has been heavily criticized by a variety of institutions and several groups and researchers, most notably [[Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs]]'s senior researcher, retired IDF lieutenant colonel [[Jonathan Dahoah-Halevi]], who claimed that B'Tselem repeatedly classifies terror operatives and armed combatants as "uninvolved civilians", but also criticized the Israeli government for not collecting and publishing casualty data.<ref>{{cite web |author=Tamar Sternthal |date=2 November 2008 |url=http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=9999&x_article=1533 |title=Updated: In 2007, B'Tselem Casualty Count Doesn't Add Up |publisher=[[Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America|CAMERA]] |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-date=5 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105045255/http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=9999&x_article=1533 |url-status=live }} Includes translation of article in Hebrew in ''Haaretz'' presenting Dahoah-Halevi's report.<br />Original Haaretz report in Hebrew: {{cite news |author=Amos Harel |url=http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.1356183 |title=מחקר: "בצלם" מפרסם מידע שגוי ומשמיט פרטים חיוניים |trans-title=Study: "B'Tselem" publishes false information and omits vital details |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |date=25 October 2008 |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-date=26 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526211854/http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.1356183 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Caroline B. Glick]], deputy managing editor of ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'' and former advisor to [[Benjamin Netanyahu]], pointed to several instances where, she claimed, B'Tselem had misrepresented Palestinian rioters or terrorists as innocent victims, or where B'Tselem failed to report when an Arab allegedly changed his testimony about an attack by settlers.<ref name="Glick">{{cite news|url=http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178708574884&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter|title=Column one: What is Israel's problem?|date=10 May 2007|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}, <!-- [https://archive.today/20130102070417/http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2007/05/what-is-israels-problem.php]--></ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Caroline B. Glick |date=7 January 2011 |title=Column One: Agents of influence |url=http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Column-One-Agents-of-influence |newspaper=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |access-date=28 September 2014 |author-link=Caroline B. Glick |archive-date=27 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527230141/http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Column-One-Agents-of-influence |url-status=live }}</ref> The [[Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America]] (CAMERA), which said that B'Tselem repeatedly classified Arab combatants and terrorists as civilian casualties.<ref>{{cite web |author=Tamar Sternthal |url=http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=493&x_context=2 |title=B'Tselem, ''Los Angeles Times'' Redefine "Civilian" |publisher=[[Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America|CAMERA]] |date=7 July 2003 |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140909062215/http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=493&x_context=2 |archive-date=9 September 2014 }}</ref><ref name="sternthal">{{cite news|last=Sternthal|first=Tamar|title=Bending the truth|work=[[Ynetnews]]|access-date=26 September 2008|date=24 September 2008|url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3601691,00.html|archive-date=25 September 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080925181327/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0%2C7340%2CL-3601691%2C00.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128086 |title=Researcher Slams B'Tselem as Inflating Arab Civilian Casualties |author=Gil Ronen |date=26 October 2008 |publisher=[[Arutz Sheva]] |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-date=31 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140331035548/http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128086 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Tamar Sternthal |url=http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=3&x_outlet=12&x_article=1265 |title=B'Tselem's Annual Casualty Figures Questioned |publisher=[[Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America|CAMERA]] |date=3 January 2007 |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-date=28 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228184647/http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=3&x_outlet=12&x_article=1265 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Israeli [[International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism]] (IPICT), on the other hand, in a "Statistical Report Summary" for 27 September 2000, through 1 January 2005, indicates that 56% (1,542) of the 2,773 Palestinians killed by Israelis were combatants. According to their data, an additional 406 Palestinians were killed by actions of their own side. 22% (215) of the 988 Israelis killed by Palestinians were combatants. An additional 22 Israelis were killed by actions of their own side.<ref name="statspage"/>

IPICT counts "probable combatants" in its total of combatants. From their full report in September 2002:

<blockquote>A 'probable combatant' is someone killed at a location and at a time during which an armed confrontation was going on, who appears most likely – but not certain – to have been an active participant in the fighting. For example, in many cases where an incident has resulted in a large number of Palestinian casualties, the only information available is that an individual was killed when Israeli soldiers returned fire in response to shots fired from a particular location. While it is possible that the person killed had not been active in the fighting and just happened to be in the vicinity of people who were, it is reasonable to assume that the number of such coincidental deaths is not particularly high. Where the accounts of an incident appear to support such a coincidence, the individual casualty has been given the benefit of the doubt, and assigned a non-combatant status.<ref name=statspage/></blockquote>

In the same 2002 IPICT full report there is a pie chart (Graph 2.9) that lists the IPICT combatant breakdown for Palestinian deaths through September 2002. Here follow the statistics in that pie chart used to come up with the total combatant percentage through September 2002:

{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Combatants
! Percent of all Palestinian deaths
|-
|Full Combatants
|44.8%
|-
|Probable Combatants
|8.3%
|-
|Violent Protesters
|1.6%
|-
|'''Total Combatants'''
|'''54.7%'''
|}

On 24 August 2004, ''Haaretz'' reporter Ze'ev Schiff published casualty figures based on [[Shin Bet]] data.<ref name=haaretz468469/> The ''Haaretz'' article reported: "There is a discrepancy of two or three casualties with the figures tabulated by the Israel Defense Forces."

Here is a summary of the figures presented in the article:
* Over 1,000 Israelis were killed by Palestinian attacks in the al-Aqsa Intifada.
* Palestinians sources claim 2,736 Palestinians killed in the Intifada.
* The [[Shin Bet]] has the names of 2,124 Palestinian dead.
* Out of the figure of 2,124 dead, Shin Bet assigned them to these organizations:
** 466 [[Hamas]] members
** 408 [[Fatah]]'s [[Tanzim]] and [[al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades]]
** 205 [[Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement|Palestinian Islamic Jihad]]
** 334 of "Palestinian security forces – for example, [[Force 17]], the Palestinian police, General Intelligence, and the counter security apparatus"

The article does not say whether those killed were combatants or not. Here is a quote:

<blockquote>The Palestinian security forces – for example, Force 17, the Palestinian police, General Intelligence, and the counter security apparatus – have lost 334 of its members during the current conflict, the Shin Bet figures show.<ref name=haaretz468469/></blockquote>

In response to IDF statistics about Palestinian casualties in the West Bank, the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem reported that two-thirds of the Palestinians killed in 2004 did not participate in the fighting.<ref name="autogenerated3">{{cite web |date=8 December 2004 |title=Two-thirds of Palestinians Killed in the West Bank This Year Did not Participate in the Fighting |url=http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20041208 |publisher=[[B'Tselem]] |access-date=28 September 2014 |archive-date=5 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140105080659/http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20041208 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2009, historian [[Benny Morris]] stated in his retrospective book ''One State, Two States'' that about one third of the Palestinian deaths up to 2004 had been civilians.<ref>{{cite book |author=Benny Morris |title=One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict |year=2009 |pages=151–152 |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |isbn=978-0-300-12281-7|author-link=Benny Morris }}</ref>