Comparison of Strikes in Iraq and Gaza

From 2014 to 2017, the coalition conducted nearly 15,000 strikes in Iraq during the campaign against ISIS, a stark contrast to the Israeli military's reports of 22,000 strikes in Gaza within a single week. Military assessments following the October 7, 2023 conflict revealed the IDF launched around 6,000 bombs in just a few days, surpassing the monthly strike figures of the US military in its anti-ISIS campaign. Notably, within less than a week, the Israeli bomb counts matched the annual totals seen in Afghanistan, despite Gaza's denser population and smaller area. By November 2, 2023, over 25,000 tons of explosives had been dropped on Gaza, a quantity equivalent to two nuclear bombs and more potent than those used in Hiroshima. Israel’s arsenal includes bombs weighing between 150 to 1,000 kilograms, causing unprecedented devastation in densely populated areas. The use of internationally banned weapons, such as cluster and phosphorus bombs, has led to severe civilian casualties, with injuries resembling those from such munitions. Human rights organizations have highlighted that these attacks drastically increase civilian risk, flatten entire neighborhoods, and indicate a systematic approach to warfare that threatens civilian safety on an enormous scale, likening the destructive impact to nuclear bomb effects in a significantly smaller area.