The govt of Israel on Friday announced that it has revised the death toll of the October 7 Hamas attack from around 1400 to roughly 1200 people. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat provided the revised number. The update comes as Israel continues to identify the victim of the massacre last month.
Lior Haiat didn’t provide details on the reason for revising the number of victims. But it is likely that some people included as victims have been now identified as Hamas terrorists. It is notable that Israel has said that around 1,500 Hamas terrorists were killed in Israeli response to the terror attack on October 7. This meant the authorities had almost 3000 dead bodies to process and identify.
Israeli authorities have continued for the past month their work to identify the victims of Hamas’s massacre in southern Israel in the surprise attack by land, air and sea. Thousands of Hamas terrorists had broken through the border fence and slaughtered families in their homes and on the streets, and a massive gathering near the border for a music festival. Apart from civilians, hundreds of soldiers were also killed in action.
The death toll is not final yet, as around 240 people remain abducted by Hamas in Gaza. Bodies of several hostages have been recovered during IDF operations in the Gaza Strip. Moreover, some people who were believed to be kidnapped by the terrorists now have been confirmed dead after forensic and other evidence gathered at the attack sites.
This week the Israel Antiquities Authority said archaeologists who joined efforts to identify victims had uncovered the remains of at least 10 people in houses burned during the grisly onslaught.
Of the 1200 deaths, 318 are military soldiers died during the Hamas attack on October 7, apart from 59 policemen. This means around 800 civilians died in the attack, as per the revised estimate.
In response to the attack, Israel declared war against Gaza Strip terror organizations and embarked upon an unprecedented air and ground campaign in the Strip that it says is meant to eliminate Hamas. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says over 11,000 people have been killed in Gaza, without differentiating between civilians and combatants. Those figures cannot be independently verified and are believed to include those erroneously killed by terror operatives amid the fighting.
