Israel’s Foreign Ministry says the official death toll in Hamas’ bloody October 7 cross-border attack into Israel has been lowered to 1,200 people.
Israeli officials have previously estimated the death toll at 1,400.
The ministry gave no reason for the revision. But an Israeli official said the number had been changed after a painstaking weekslong process to identify bodies, many of which were mutilated or burned.
The official said the final death toll could still change. He said a number of bodies have not been identified and it is unclear whether all of the nearly 240 hostages believed to be held by Hamas are still alive.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official government announcement.
The Hamas run-Health Ministry says the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has risen to 11,078, including 4,506 children and 3,027 women.
The vast majority have been killed in Israeli airstrikes that have pounded the enclave following Hamas’ assault on the enclave.
The ministry said in an online statement Friday that another 27,490 Palestinians in Gaza have been wounded.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says “far too many” Palestinians have died and suffered as Israel wages relentless war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and that while recent Israeli steps to try to minimize civilian harm are positive they are not nearly enough.
Speaking in New Delhi at the end of an intense nine-day diplomatic tour of the Middle East and Asia, Blinken said Friday that the US “appreciates” Israel’s formalisation of pauses in their military operations to allow Palestinians to move from northern to southern Gaza and its creation of a second safe corridor for them to use to escape harm. But, he said much more needs to be done.
Bliken said Israel's steps “will save lives and will enable more assistance to get to Palestinians in need,” but at the same time, ”much more needs to be done to protect civilians and to make sure that humanitarian assistance reaches them.”
The US top diplomat said “far too many Palestinians have been killed, far too many have suffered these past weeks" and that everything possible should be done to prevent them harm and maximise the assistance they need.
He said the US has proposed additional ideas to the Israelis about how to accomplish that. US officials have said they would like to see Israel introduce longer “humanitarian pauses” that would cover areas wider than just the two corridors as well as exponentially expanding the amount of assistance getting into Gaza from Egypt by increasing the flow of trucks carrying food, water, medicine, shelter and other supplies.
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