The statement from sources within the Israeli military that on average two civilians lose their lives in the Gaza Strip for every hostile Palestinian Hamas militiaman that Israel kills was first confirmed by Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the Israeli military.
But now he backtracks and explains that he has not confirmed the figures.
– I confirmed that I had seen the assignment. I have not confirmed the numbers yet, Conricus tells CNN on Tuesday.
The day before, Jonathan Conricus stated that it is relatively a very positive statistic to accidentally kill two civilians for every Hamas member during heavy urban fighting.
– I can confirm the information, Conricus said on Monday.
The questions that Conricus then answered are said to have touched criticism from the outside world for the high death toll in the Gaza war.
Hamas: Over 16,000 dead
The AFP news agency, citing an anonymous Israeli military official, had asked the question whether around 5,000 Hamas militants had been killed, and the official then replied: “The numbers are more or less correct”.
At the same time, the Israeli military emphasized that it uses high-tech software for mapping in order to reduce the number of civilian casualties.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, more than 16,000 people – mostly women and children – have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, when terror-labelled Hamas attacked mostly civilians in Israel.
Has created anger
The rising death toll and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza have created concern and anger in many parts of the world.
Israel declared war on Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, after the hardline Islamist movement carried out the worst attack in Israel’s history on October 7 – killing around 1,200 people on the Israeli side and taking more than 200 hostages and taking them out of the country.
In parallel with extensive airstrikes, Israel is now carrying out an increasingly intensive offensive on the ground in Gaza.