The Human Cost
15,200
disputed broad estimate
The 15,200 display allocation is a rounded estimate. National totals differ and event records mix killed, wounded, missing, and prisoners; several campaign entries overlap and are not additive.
Each dot below represents 1,000 human lives. Scroll to watch the scale unfold.
Working allocation: 14,000 soldiers killed in combat, from wounds, or from disease. Each = 1,000 lives.
1,200 civilians killed — from violence, famine, disease, and displacement. Wars are not fought only by soldiers.
How Yom Kippur War's dead compare to other conflicts and events.
776 dead
Israel lost 776 soldiers in the Six-Day War — the Yom Kippur War killed more than three times as many in 19 days
2,656 dead
2,656 Israelis killed — the shock of losses against an enemy considered defeated shaped Israeli security doctrine for a generation
7,000 dead
Egypt's Suez crossing alone cost both sides roughly 7,500 lives in the first three days
11,344 dead
Arab coalition military dead — Egypt and Syria suffered catastrophic losses, yet achieved their political objectives
14,000 dead
~14,000 total military dead in 19 days — one of history's most costly conventional wars per day fought