Israel’s opposition leader has revealed the huge cost Israel has paid in dead and injured soldiers since October 7, 2023, and has accused the military of hiding the true number of casualties in Gaza and Lebanon.
Yair Lapid said: “Eleven thousand soldiers were injured and 890 others killed” since Oct. 7, 2023 in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 on Monday evening.
He warned that military casualties will continue to increase amid Israel’s deadly offensives in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Lapid’s statement exceeds official military figures which claim that 772 soldiers have been killed and around 5,100 injured since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict last year.
Hamas and Hezbollah have consistently accused Israel of hiding its real casualty figures.
“There are limits to how much we accept the alternative facts,” Lapid said, stressing that his figures about military casualties are “correct.”
He warned that the number of dead and injured soldiers in the current conflicts will continue to rise if the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “doesn’t do anything.”
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Israel has continued a devastating war on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
More than 43,000 people have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 101,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.
These figures are almost certainly an underestimate given the number of people unaccounted for under the rubble. Some estimates put the number of dead at well over 100,000.
Mediation efforts by the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar to reach a ceasefire in Gaza have so far failed to make a breakthrough due to Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the war.
The conflict has spread to Lebanon, with Israel launching deadly strikes across the country in an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and the group since the start of the Gaza war.
Israel expanded the conflict on October 1 this year by launching a ground assault into southern Lebanon.
