Israel has revised the death toll from the Hamas attack on its territory on October 7 from 1,400 to 1,200, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told AFP on Friday.
“This is an updated estimate,” Lior Haiat said, without providing an explanation for the new figure.
“This figure includes foreign workers and people of other nationalities” than Israelis who were killed in the October 7 attacks on Israeli territory, said a separate statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday evening.
“This assessment is not definitive, it is a new estimate which may still evolve depending on the identification of the bodies,” adds this press release.
The death toll of 1,200, mostly civilians killed on the day of the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, was used during the day on Friday in a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The Hamas terrorists […] murdered around 1,200 people in cold blood and kidnapped 240, including babies, children, women and the elderly,” the statement said.
Since October 7 and the attack of a scale and violence never seen since the creation of Israel in 1948, the Israeli authorities have been carrying out a complex work of identifying the bodies found in different places in southern Israel.
The previous death toll of 1,400 was gradually established in the week following the attacks and had remained stable since then.
For more than a month, Israel has declared a war to “eradicate” Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip. The incessant Israeli bombardments on this territory have left more than 11,000 dead, mainly civilians, including more than 4,500 children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.