At least one death or injury from the use of explosive weapons was recorded in 23 countries and territories in August 2024. Worldwide, there were at least 789 reported incidents of explosive weapons use resulting in 4,666 casualties, of which 4,203 (90%) were civilians. About 37% of all reported civilian casualties occurred in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Other affected countries and territories in terms of civilian casualties from the use of explosive weapons were Myanmar, Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.
When explosive weapons were used in populated areas in August 2024, civilians reportedly accounted for 97% 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, 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 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 figures reported, when possible, by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.