Israel revises down Oct 7 Hamas attack death toll from 1,400 to 1,200

Israel on Friday revised down the death toll from last month’s Hamas attacks in southern Israel from 1,400 to about 1,200, according to a foreign ministry spokesman. “This is an updated estimate,” ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told AFP. “It includes foreign workers and other foreign nationalities just from the October 7 attack,” he said. He said the toll was not “final” and “might change” when all the bodies have been identified. Israel previously said Hamas fighters who poured across the heavily militarised 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 died in retaliatory strikes in Gaza by Israel, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.