🩸 The Body Count That Should Shame America: Israel Kills More Palestinians in 20 Months Than Vietnam War Casualties in 20 Years
How Palestinian deaths in 20 months exceeded American deaths in 20 years
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
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Since October 7, 2023, more than 62,000 Palestinian people 😢 have been killed by Israel's military. This number 😲 surpasses all the American soldiers killed 🇺🇸 during the entire Vietnam War which lasted 20 years. Most of the Palestinian casualties are civilians 👨👩👧👦, including many children 🧒👶.
This tragic comparison 😔 highlights the severity, as it occurred in less than two years instead of 20. Many believe this discrepancy shows unequal regard for human life ⚖️, which is unjust. The article discusses the significance of these figures and offers suggestions on how people can help stop the violence ✋✌️.
🗝️ Takeaways
📈 Over 62,700 Palestinians killed since Oct 7, 2023 - surpassing the 58,220 Americans who died during the entire 20-year Vietnam War
⚡ Daily death rate in Gaza averages 98+ per day vs. 8 per day during the Vietnam War
👶 70% of Palestinian casualties in residential areas are women and children, according to UN verification
🏠 Almost all of Gaza's homes were damaged or destroyed, with 96% of the population facing acute food insecurity
💰 Israel confiscated more Palestinian land in 2024 than in the previous 20 years combined
📊 True death toll likely 46-107% higher than official counts when including indirect deaths
🌍 1,800 documented settler attacks in the West Bank since October 7, 2023
A Grim Accounting: More Palestinians Dead By Israel in 20 Months Than All American Vietnam Veterans in 20 Years
By Three Sonorans
In the harsh light of this desert borderland where we call home, where la frontera reminds us daily of the arbitrary lines drawn by power and empire, another line has been crossed. A threshold so stark, so devastating, that it demands we pause and reckon with what we are witnessing in real time.
As of July 2025, more Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023, than the total number of American soldiers who died during the entire Vietnam War.
Let that truth settle like dust in your throat, hermanos y hermanas.
According to the U.S. National Archives, exactly 58,220 American service members died during the Vietnam War between 1955 and 1975—a twenty-year span that became synonymous with American military tragedy and generational trauma.
Meanwhile, in less than two years, over 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank combined since October 7, 2023.
The latest figures paint a portrait of devastation that should shock the conscience of any nation claiming to champion human rights. Al Jazeera's live tracker reports 61,709 Palestinians killed in Gaza as of February 2025, with an additional 1,000 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank since the conflict began. This brings the total Palestinian death toll to over 62,700—surpassing by thousands the American casualties of Vietnam.
The Numbers That Define Horror
To understand the scale of what we're witnessing, we need to examine not just the raw numbers, but their context. The Vietnam War stretched across two decades, involving multiple escalations and de-escalations, with American troop levels fluctuating dramatically. Britannica reports that U.S. military involvement began in the 1950s and reached its peak in the late 1960s, with the final withdrawal in 1975.
In contrast, the current devastation in Palestine has unfolded in less than two years. Wikipedia's comprehensive analysis of Gaza war casualties notes that as of July 2025, over 60,200 people have been reported killed, with scholars estimating that 80% of the Palestinians killed are civilians.
The speed and scale of civilian casualties has prompted Oxfam to declare that Gaza's daily death rate is "higher than any other major 21st Century conflict."
Conflict Time Period Death Toll Average Deaths per Day Vietnam War (U.S. Military) 1955-1975 (20 years) 58,220 8.0 Palestinians Killed by Israel Oct 7, 2023 - July 2025 (1.75 years) 62,700+ 98.0+
Source: U.S. National Archives, Al Jazeera, Multiple UN Agencies
The demographic breakdown reveals an even more disturbing reality. While Vietnam claimed the lives of young American soldiers—the average age of death was 23.11 years according to official statistics—the Palestinian casualties tell a different story.
UN data confirms that 70% of Palestinians killed in residential buildings were women and children. The Gaza Health Ministry's documented casualties show that thousands of those killed were children under 16 years old.
Beyond the Body Count: La Verdad Hidden in Plain Sight
What makes these comparisons even more chilling is how they've been processed differently by American society and media.
The Vietnam War became a defining generational trauma for the United States—and rightfully so. The names of those 58,220 Americans are etched into the black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., each one representing a life cut short, a family destroyed, a community forever changed.
But where is the equivalent memorialization for Palestinians?
Where is the wall listing the names of 17,492 Palestinian children killed, according to the latest Gaza Health Ministry figures? Why does American television not show the faces and read the names of Palestinian dead with the same reverence reserved for American casualties?
Esta hipocresía runs deeper than media coverage—it reveals the fundamental racism that dehumanizes Palestinian lives while elevating American ones.
When we say "Never Again," apparently we mean "Never Again to People Who Look Like Us."
The Indigenous Connection: Patterns of Settler Colonialism
Here in the borderlands, where Tohono O'odham Nation territory was carved up by arbitrary lines drawn by colonos who never asked permission to be here, we recognize the patterns. The same logic that justified the displacement and genocide of Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island is being deployed against Palestinians today.
Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has openly stated his intention to confiscate Palestinian land. In 2024 alone, Israel confiscated more Palestinian land in the West Bank than in the previous 20 years combined, according to Peace Now.
The 1,800 documented settler attacks across the occupied West Bank since October 7 follow the same playbook used against Apache, Yaqui, and countless other Native peoples: terrorize the population, steal the land, erase the history.
The parallels are not coincidental—they are structural.
Settler colonialism operates through predictable mechanisms: military superiority, demographic replacement, legal frameworks that legitimize theft, and most importantly, the dehumanization of Indigenous peoples to justify their elimination.
America's Complicity in the Trump Era
Under this second Trump presidency, American complicity has reached new depths of cynicism.
While Trump champions 'America First' rhetoric and claims to prioritize American interests above all else, his administration has continued military aid to Israel even as international bodies document war crimes and the International Court of Justice investigates genocide charges.
The same politicians who wrap themselves in the flag and speak reverently of American veterans have voted to provide the weapons that have now killed more Palestinians than all the Americans who died in Vietnam. The hypocrisy is staggering, but not surprising.
Empire always demands blood sacrifices from those it considers dispensable.
Both Democrats and Republicans have participated in this bipartisan consensus on Palestinian disposability. Biden's administration oversaw the initial carnage, and Trump's promises to "finish the job" suggest even worse to come.
Neither party questions the fundamental assumption that Israeli lives matter more than Palestinian ones.
The Toll of Indirect Deaths: When War Becomes Genocide
The documented casualties represent only the tip of the iceberg. Brown University's Costs of War project estimates that indirect deaths from infrastructure destruction, medical system collapse, and famine may ultimately dwarf the direct casualties.
When 96 percent of Gaza's population faces acute food insecurity and almost all of Gaza's homes have been damaged or destroyed, we are witnessing the systematic destruction of an entire society.
The Lancet published peer-reviewed research suggesting the true death toll could reach 186,000 when indirect deaths are included. Multiple studies indicate the official death counts are likely significant underestimates, with The Economist finding the actual toll is probably 46-107% higher than official figures.
Gaza now has the highest concentration of child amputees per capita in the world. Let that sink in.
An entire generation of Palestinian children—those who survive—will bear the physical and psychological scars of this systematic destruction for the rest of their lives.
Why These Numbers Matter in the Era of Fascism
Some will object to this comparison, arguing that Palestinian and American lives shouldn't be measured against each other. They miss the point entirely. The comparison matters precisely because it reveals how American society processes and values death differently based on race, nationality, and imperial interests.
When American soldiers die, each death is treated as a national tragedy worthy of reflection, remembrance, and policy change. The Vietnam War ended partly because Americans could no longer stomach the casualties.
But Palestinians die by the thousands, and American policy continues unchanged. Their deaths are considered acceptable collateral damage in the service of American geopolitical interests.
This is the logic of white supremacy and empire: some lives matter, others don't. Some deaths demand justice, others can be ignored or justified.
In el norte, Palestinian children are just numbers in a spreadsheet, acceptable casualties in someone else's war fought with American weapons.
The Path Forward: Resistencia and Solidarity
But here in the borderlands, we know another way is possible.
Indigenous communities across the Americas have survived centuries of attempted genocide and continue to resist. Palestinians, like the Yaqui, Apache, and countless other Indigenous peoples, refuse to disappear despite overwhelming violence aimed at their elimination.
The growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement offers concrete ways to resist. College students nationwide are demanding that their universities divest from companies profiting from Palestinian suffering. Labor unions are refusing to handle Israeli goods. Artists are canceling performances in Tel Aviv.
La lucha continues because the alternative—accepting Palestinian elimination—is unthinkable for anyone committed to justice. Every phone call to representatives, every protest, every dollar divested from complicit institutions represents a rejection of the assumption that Palestinian lives are disposable.
¿Y Ahora Qué? What Comes Next
The numbers are clear, the parallels undeniable, the moral urgency overwhelming.
More Palestinians have died in less than two years than Americans died in the entire Vietnam War. If that doesn't move you to action, what will?
In the Trump era, when fascism is ascendant and democracy itself hangs in the balance, Palestinian liberation has become a litmus test for anyone claiming to oppose authoritarianism. You cannot meaningfully resist fascism at home while supporting it abroad. You cannot claim to value human rights while funding genocide.
The liberation of Palestine and the liberation of all oppressed peoples—from Indigenous communities in the Americas to Black communities fighting police violence to migrants trapped in detention centers along this very border—are interconnected struggles. Todos somos connected in the web of resistance against empire, colonialism, and white supremacy.
As we sit in the desert borderlands, watching the sun set over territories that were Indigenous long before arbitrary lines carved them up, we remember that all of this land was stolen, all borders are violence, and all empires eventually fall. The question is not whether justice will come—it's whether we'll be on the right side when it does.
¡La lucha continúa! The struggle continues because it must, because Palestinian children deserve the same right to life as American children, because no people should be sacrificed on the altar of empire. And because in the end, our liberation is bound together—todos somos Palestinians, and Palestinians are all of us.
How You Can Take Action:
Demand a Ceasefire: Call your representatives at (202) 224-3121 and demand they support an immediate and permanent ceasefire
Support BDS: Visit bdsmovement.net to learn how to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israeli apartheid
Donate: Support Palestinian relief through organizations like Medical Aid for Palestinians or Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Educate Yourself: Read Palestinian voices like those published by Electronic Intifada or Mondoweiss
Show Up: Attend local protests and solidarity events with Palestine
Vote: Support candidates who oppose military aid to Israel and support Palestinian rights
Support Independent Journalism: Subscribe to Three Sonorans Substack to stay informed about frontline resistance in the borderlands and beyond. Independent media matters now more than ever.
Questions for Discussion: What parallels do you see between the treatment of Palestinians and the historical treatment of Indigenous peoples in the Americas? How do you think the American public would react if these casualty numbers involved Americans instead of Palestinians?
Have a scoop or a story you want us to follow up on? Send us a message!
This is shameful. I can't imagine how bad it must be for people in Gaza right now, and those of us who are paying attention are traumatized by what we see. And western leaders are cheering this on, supplying Israel with money and weapons. It's just sickening.
Make Trump culpable for his inaction.