At least one death or injury from the use of explosive weapons was recorded in 25 countries and territories in December 2024. Worldwide, there were at least 791 reported incidents of explosive weapons use resulting in 4,819 casualties, of which 4,402 (91%) were civilians. Around 43% of all reported civilian casualties occurred in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in December 2024. Other affected countries and territories in terms of civilian casualties from the use of explosive weapons were Sudan, Syria, Myanmar, and Ukraine.
When explosive weapons were used in populated areas in December 2024, civilians reportedly accounted for 98% of all recorded casualties. This pattern of harm has been consistently recorded over the last decade.
This data is collected from English-language media reports. It does not attempt to exhaustively capture all incidents of explosive weapon use around the world but to serve as an indicator of the scale and pattern of deaths and injuries. In the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Lebanon, English-language media underreported the numbers of casualties caused by incidents of explosive weapons use. Additionally, the use of explosive weapons in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Lebanon was so frequent that it was difficult in many cases to attribute civilian casualties to specific incidents of use, as required by the methodology for this data collection. As such, the data presented here underrepresents the extent to which casualties were caused by explosive weapons. For more information on casualties from official sources in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, see the Ministry of Health in Gaza and the Lebanese Health Ministry reported figures, when possible, by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.