Israeli authorities revised the death toll from the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas to around 1,200, down from a previous estimate of 1,400. This was stated by Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson, Lior Haiat to Reuters. The identified number was revised on Nov. 9 and includes the number of foreign victims who died in the attack. There may be changes to the tally once all the bodies are identified. Israeli authorities suspected that “a lot of” unidentified corpses previously included in the tally were Hamas terrorists who died in the attack. In rejecting a resolution on the situation in Gaza by UNESCO, Mr. Haiat stated that Hamas had brutally murdered about 1,200 people and had abducted 240 others, including babies, children, women, and the elderly. The resolution, he said, gave the green light to the Hamas terrorist organization to continue to murder, kidnap, and use the residents of the Gaza Strip as human shields. The text raised concerns about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and called for immediate action to protect Gaza’s cultural heritage from destruction. component.VideoCapture.onClick={function toggleClass(id,className){var currentItem=document.getElementById(id);var hasClass=currentItem.classList.contains(className);if(hasClass){currentItem.classList.remove(className);}else{currentItem.classList.add(className);}};toggleClass(‘videoWrapper’,’active’);}.bind(this)
Israel has aimed its airstrikes at Hamas targets in Gaza and imposed a complete siege, cutting off the food, water, and fuel that it controlled in Gaza until Hamas frees all hostages it took on Oct. 7. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll in Gaza has topped 11,000 this week, a number The Epoch Times is unable to verify. The United Nations has called for a humanitarian ceasefire and urged Israel to allow lifesaving relief to reach Gaza. The World Health Organization said Friday that 20 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are no longer functioning, including a pediatric hospital that stopped operations after a reported Israeli strike in the area. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a ceasefire will not occur without the release of hostages. He added that Israeli forces are making every effort to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza, including by providing safe zones and safe corridors for civilians.
Israel has agreed to daily four-hour pauses in operations in Gaza to let civilians move south, according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Nov. 9. In response, Mr. Netanyahu told Fox News on Nov. 9 that Israel faced “battled conditions on the ground, the safety of our own forces, the hostages we want to get out, and the humanitarian corridors we want to [operate]—which I said, Hamas is preventing by using its own fire … preventing Palestinian civilians from leaving.” U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters there was no chance of a ceasefire, but he and other U.S. officials have been pressuring Israeli counterparts to pause fighting for longer to let civilians depart. Mr. Biden said he had requested a pause longer than three days, but that the Israelis “took a little longer” than he hoped to agree.