The Cost of the Iran Wars: Death Toll, Injured, and the Money, By the Numbers

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Two different wars, easy to mix up. Since June 2025, Israel and Iran have fought two separate conflicts, both of which the US directly joined militarily — and press coverage of the two is routinely conflated because the outlets, the terminology, and even some of the officials involved overlap. This piece keeps them separate and puts real numbers, from multiple governments and independent monitors, next to each other.

• June 13–25, 2025 — the “12-Day War.” Israel’s Operation Rising Lion struck Iranian nuclear and military sites; on June 22, 2025, the US carried out Operation Midnight Hammer, striking the Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities with B-2 bombers and GBU-57 bunker-buster munitions. It ended with a ceasefire after 12 days.
• February 28, 2026 — present — the 2026 war. Known as Operation Epic Fury (US), Operation Roaring Lion (Israel), and True Promise IV (Iran), this is a larger and longer conflict. A ceasefire took effect April 8, 2026, but it collapsed on July 8, 2026, and fighting has continued intermittently since. Every figure below for this war is a snapshot, not a final count.

Every number that follows is attributed to its source. Where Iran’s own government figures differ from independent Iranian human rights monitors — which happens consistently, and by a wide margin — both are shown side by side rather than picking one.

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• US-Iran Conflict Escalates Amid Hormuz Blockade

Deaths, by Source and by War

Iran’s official death toll from the 2025 war, per its Health Ministry and later its Judiciary spokesman, settled at 935^[1]. HRANA (Human Rights Activists), an independent Iranian human rights group that is not affiliated with the Iranian government, put the same war’s toll at 1,190 — roughly 30 percent higher^[2]. Israel’s Ministry of Health reported 28 Israeli deaths (27 civilians and one off-duty soldier) from Iranian missile retaliation^[3]. The US reported zero casualties from Operation Midnight Hammer, and no confirmed deaths were reported at the Fordow, Natanz, or Isfahan strike sites themselves, which were evacuated and largely underground.

The 2026 war’s toll is both larger and still moving. Iran’s Health Ministry put deaths at 3,468 as of early April 2026^[4], while HRANA’s independent count for the same window was 3,636 (1,221 military, 1,701 civilian, including 254 children)^[5], and Hengaw, a separate Kurdish-Iranian human rights organization, reported over 4,300 killed in just the first 10 days^[6] — the widest gap between government and independent counts across either war. Fighting resumed after the April 8 ceasefire collapsed on July 8, 2026; Iran’s Health Ministry reported 59 additional deaths in the renewed phase as of July 24^[7]. Israel’s Ministry of Health reported 26 deaths as of the same tracker update^[4]. The Pentagon initially reported 14 US service members killed; on July 26, 2026, it removed 4 more recent deaths from the official Iran-war count, reclassifying them separately — a move The Spokesman-Review reported drew criticism from lawmakers over wartime transparency^[8].

Injured, by Source and by War

Iran’s Health Ministry reported 4,870 wounded in the 2025 war^[9]; HRANA’s independent count was close at 4,475^[2]. Israel’s Ministry of Health reported 3,238 hospitalized, including 23 in severe condition^[3].

In the 2026 war, Iran’s government and HRANA converge on a similar figure: roughly 26,500 injured as of early April^[4][5]. Israel’s Ministry of Health reported 7,835 wounded (23 severe, 111 moderate, most of the rest light injuries or acute-anxiety cases)^[4]. The Pentagon’s original count listed 417 US troops wounded, with a further 207 reported in the renewed phase that began in July^[7].

What Independent Monitors Verified Directly

Beyond the raw tallies, third-party human rights organizations independently documented specific incidents on both sides. The UN’s fact-finding mission on Iran cited both the Iranian Health Ministry’s and independent rights groups’ figures side by side and called for stronger civilian protections in June 2025^[10]. Human Rights Watch documented five specific Iranian missile strikes on Israeli population centers — including one on Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva — that it said were likely war crimes^[11]. In the 2026 war, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch jointly verified, using satellite imagery, a strike on a school in Minab that killed 156 people, including 120 schoolchildren^[12]; HRW’s 2026 World Report separately documented Israeli-area strikes it said killed 20 civilians and likely constituted war crimes^[13]. The UN’s humanitarian office declared a formal crisis, citing 3.2 million people displaced inside Iran^[14].

The Money: What Each War Cost

The 2025 war’s price tag is comparatively well-defined. The Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute put the full cost of Operation Midnight Hammer — B-2 sorties, GBU-57 munitions, and Tomahawk strikes — at roughly $2.0–2.3 billion for a single strike package^[15]. Pentagon budget documents cited a much narrower figure, around $636 million, covering only munitions replacement, with THAAD interceptors fired in Israel’s defense as the single largest line item at roughly $498 million^[16]. Israel’s own government put its 12-day campaign cost at roughly NIS 20 billion, about $5.5 billion^[17]. Iran International reported Iranian infrastructure and energy-sector damage estimates in the $200–270 billion range^[18], while CSIS’s nuclear-program assessment confirmed severe damage at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan but explicitly declined to put a reconstruction dollar figure on it, calling the rebuild a political rather than financial constraint^[19]. On the Israeli side, the Tax Authority’s compensation fund had processed over 53,500 damage claims by late August 2025, with direct property damage estimated at roughly $1.1 billion^[20].

The 2026 war’s cost is both larger and disputed even among US government sources. CSIS tracked the US cost climbing from $3.7 billion in the first 100 hours to $11.3 billion by day six (a Pentagon-confirmed figure) to $16.5 billion by day 12, reaching a total in the $34–42 billion range by the time active fighting first paused^[21][22]. CNN reported that Pentagon officials privately estimated the true cost, including base repairs and stockpile replenishment, could run $80–100 billion — well above the roughly $25 billion figure the Pentagon gave publicly^[23]. Al Jazeera’s own review of the competing figures found estimates ranging as widely as “$25 billion or $1 trillion” depending on what’s counted^[24]. Israel’s defense budget was raised from NIS 112 billion to NIS 177 billion (roughly $45 billion) to cover the war, the Jerusalem Post reported^[25]. On the Iranian side, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies estimated the replacement cost of destroyed Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure at roughly $91 billion, with total economic damage — including the effects of Iran’s oil-export blockade — reaching about $150 billion^[26]. CNBC reported Iran’s crude oil exports fell to zero in May 2026, the rial collapsed to roughly 1.9 million to the dollar at its low point, and the IMF estimated Iran’s GDP contracted 6.1 percent for the year with inflation near 69 percent^[27]. Israel’s Tax Authority had logged over 28,000 war-damage compensation claims by April 9, 2026^[28]. As of the most recent reporting, the war has resumed after the ceasefire’s collapse, and every cost figure above is still climbing^[29].

A Note on Why the Numbers Don’t Match

Every figure in this piece comes from a named, dated, sourced report — but readers should understand why sources disagree rather than assume one is lying and the other isn’t. Iranian government figures are consistently lower than independent Iranian human rights groups’ counts across both wars, which is a documented, repeated pattern rather than a one-time discrepancy — researchers who track HRANA’s reporting note the group has historically published higher tolls than Iranian state media in past unrest as well. Israeli figures are comparatively undisputed across all outlets that reported them, likely because Israel’s Ministry of Health publishes granular, regularly updated hospital-admission data. US cost figures vary the most of any category in this piece, precisely because “cost of the war” can mean munitions expended, base repairs, stockpile replenishment, or all of the above — and the Pentagon’s own public figures and internal estimates, per CNN’s reporting, do not agree with each other^[23].

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References

1. Iran Judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir, via The Times of Israel. (2025, June 30). Iran raises death toll from conflict with Israel to more than 900. timesofisrael.com ↩
2. HRANA (Human Rights Activists). (2025, June 28). Twelve days under fire: A comprehensive report on the Iran-Israel war. en-hrana.org ↩a ↩b
3. The Times of Israel. (2025, June 25). The Israel-Iran war, by the numbers, after 12 days of fighting. timesofisrael.com ↩a ↩b
4. Al Jazeera. (2026, June 10). US-Israel attacks on Iran: Death toll and injuries live tracker. aljazeera.com ↩a ↩b ↩c ↩d
5. HRANA (Human Rights Activists). (2026, April). Statistical overview as the second week of war in Iran concludes. en-hrana.org ↩a ↩b
6. Hengaw Human Rights Organization. (2026, March). Reports and statistics: First 10 days of the war. hengaw.net ↩
7. GlobalSecurity.org. (2026, July 24). Iran war operations update, Day 149. globalsecurity.org ↩a ↩b
8. The Spokesman-Review. (2026, July 27). Pentagon’s Iran-war death count moves 4 troops to a new category. spokesman.com ↩
9. IRNA (Iran Health Ministry), via GlobalSecurity.org. (2025, June 25). Iran casualty update. globalsecurity.org ↩
10. UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2025, June 20). Iran: UN fact-finding mission, special rapporteur call for civilian protection. ohchr.org ↩
11. Human Rights Watch. (2025, September 4). Iran: Missile strikes on Israeli civilians likely war crimes. hrw.org ↩
12. Amnesty International. (2026, April). Middle East: World leaders must centre protection of civilians and agree an enduring ceasefire. amnesty.org ↩
13. Human Rights Watch. (2026). World Report 2026: Iran chapter. hrw.org ↩
14. UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. (2026, April 3). Islamic Republic of Iran: Humanitarian update no. 2. unocha.org ↩
15. Bilmes, L. (2025, October). Costs of War Project, Watson Institute, Brown University. Wider Middle East costs. costsofwar.watson.brown.edu ↩
16. The Center Square. (2025). Pentagon replacement-weapons cost tally, Operation Midnight Hammer. thecentersquare.com ↩
17. Middle East Eye, citing an Israeli government ministry source via The Times of Israel. (2025, July 9). Israel counts the true cost of Iran war as censorship masks full damage. middleeasteye.net ↩
18. Iran International. (2026, March 26). War damage cost per Iranian citizen. iranintl.com ↩
19. Center for Strategic and International Studies. (2025, August 6). Damage to Iran’s nuclear program: Can it rebuild? csis.org ↩
20. Iran International, citing Israel Tax Authority. (2025, August 28). Israeli war-damage compensation claims. iranintl.com ↩
21. Center for Strategic and International Studies. (2026, April). Iran war cost estimate update: $11.3 billion Day 6, $16.5 billion Day 12. csis.org ↩
22. Center for Strategic and International Studies. (2026). War may be ending: What did Epic Fury cost? csis.org ↩
23. CNN. (2026, April 29). Pentagon’s public $25 billion Iran-war estimate may be too low, internal figures suggest. cnn.com ↩a ↩b
24. Al Jazeera. (2026, April 30). $25bn or $1 trillion? How much has the Iran war really cost the US? aljazeera.com ↩
25. The Jerusalem Post. (2026). Rising war costs push Israel’s defense budget from 112b. to 177b. NIS. jpost.com ↩
26. Foundation for Defense of Democracies. (2026, April 23). Evaluating the economic damage to Iran from Operation Epic Fury: An initial estimate. fdd.org ↩
27. CNBC. (2026, April 23). Iran’s economy at war: Rial, oil, and the Strait of Hormuz blockade, charted. cnbc.com ↩
28. The Jerusalem Post. (2026, April 9). Israel Tax Authority: War-damage compensation claims pass 28,000. jpost.com ↩
29. The Jerusalem Post. (2026, July 26). Live updates: Iran war. jpost.com ↩

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