27JUL

6,530 dead by day 25 — Hengaw report

1 min read

10:27UTC

Hengaw's count reached 6,530 killed through Day 25. The eighth report, covering the last week, is overdue.

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Key takeaway

Both sides' casualty tolls are climbing with no ceasefire in sight.

Hengaw's seventh report confirmed 6,530 killed through Day 25 (24 March), including 640 civilians, 130 children, and 173 women across 186 cities in 26 provinces. ¹ An eighth report covering days 25 to 31 is overdue. Israel recorded 6,131 total hospitalisations since 28 February, with 118 currently hospitalised. Four Israeli soldiers were killed in a south Lebanon clash with Hezbollah on 31 March. ²

The civilian toll in Iran already exceeds total coalition fatalities in the 2003 Iraq invasion. The gap between Hengaw's figures and the Iranian government's official count of 1,937 remains wide and unexplained.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Hengaw is a Kurdish human rights organisation that has been tracking casualties inside Iran since the war began. Their seventh report, covering the first 25 days of the war, documented 6,530 people killed, including 640 civilians, 130 children, and 173 women. To put that in context: total coalition military fatalities in the entire 2003 Iraq invasion were around 172. Iran has lost more civilians in 25 days than the US-led coalition lost in total during the fall of Baghdad. An eighth report covering the week since then is overdue. At the documented rate of roughly 20 civilian deaths per day, the current civilian death toll in Iran likely exceeds 800 by now. On the Israeli side, 6,131 people have been hospitalised since the war began, with four soldiers killed in a clash with Hezbollah in Lebanon on 31 March.

Sources:Times of Israel·Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights·Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights

Mentions:Lebanon →Hengaw →Hezbollah →

First Reported In

Update #53 · Trump drops Hormuz goal; toll becomes law

Times of Israel· 31 Mar 2026

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Causes and effects

Caused by

Hengaw: 6,900 dead in first month

Hengaw's seventh report updates the 6,530 toll that underpins the humanitarian casualty tracking established through earlier Hengaw reports.

Occurred 28 Mar 2026

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This Event

6,530 dead by day 25 — Hengaw report

Iranian civilian casualties already exceed total coalition fatalities in the 2003 Iraq invasion, with a week of data still unreported.

Led to

Day 29: 6,900 dead; official toll frozen

Hengaw's 8th report (6,900 dead) builds directly on the 7th report (ID:1757, 6,530 dead), showing the toll continues to rise.

Occurred 28 Mar 2026

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Different Perspectives

Asian buyers (India, Japan, China, South Korea)

Asian refiners are absorbing 62% of Yanbu's 3.75m b/d flow, the bulk of Saudi Arabia's rerouted crude now clearing east rather than into the Atlantic basin. That destination split leaves Asian buyers more exposed to any single Yanbu-specific disruption than under the kingdom's normal multi-terminal export pattern.

Russia / Lukoil

Moscow loses the roughly $14-a-barrel legal headroom the frozen price-cap formula would otherwise have released toward $58, even as Urals trades below Russia's own $59 budget floor. The shadow-fleet insurance workaround the freeze leaves untouched remains the actual route sanctioned crude clears above $44 in practice.

European Union / Council

Brussels adopted its 21st sanctions package on 23 July, letting boarding states confiscate and sell shadow-fleet cargo outright and freezing the G7 price cap's automatic adjustment to mid-2027, converting indefinite tanker storage into recoverable value for enforcers.

Freight and tanker desks

The Baltic Exchange's TD3C VLCC benchmark, most desks' reference for Gulf freight, prices a single-vessel voyage while Saudi shippers now pay for two Suezmax charters at roughly double the transit time. That gap leaves any book hedged purely on TD3C carrying unrecognised Suezmax basis risk on the bulk of Saudi rerouted volume.

Mediterranean refiners (Sines, Trieste, Augusta)

Refiners already facing aframax rates up 198% month-on-month now watch Ain Sokhna draw 23% of Yanbu's rerouted crude through the same SUMED corridor they lean on for product backfill. Fujairah and ARA stocks near record lows leave little room to absorb a thinner Suez product flow.

Saudi Arabia

Riyadh has rerouted its entire western-coast crude book through Yanbu and Suez since the 23 July Bab el-Mandeb embargo, absorbing a roughly $2m-per-voyage Suezmax premium on every diverted cargo. The kingdom's fiscal breakeven near $108 a barrel makes that freight cost, not the blockade itself, the more durable drag on export economics.