Israel revises down death toll from October 7 Hamas attack

Israel on Friday revised down the death toll from last month’s Hamas attacks in southern Israel from 1,400 to 1,200, according to a foreign ministry spokesman.

“This is the updated number. It is due to the fact that there were lot of corpses that were not identified and now we think those belong to terrorists … not Israeli casualties,” ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said.

Israel previously said Hamas fighters who poured across the heavily militarized border on October 7 killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

But in an unrelated statement on Friday that was critical of the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO, Haiat said Hamas murdered “about 1,200 people.”

Haiat separately confirmed the new toll in a statement to AFP.

Since the October 7 attacks, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

Over 11,000 people have since been killed in retaliatory strikes in Gaza by Israel, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.