SHAH ALAM - Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad raised questions about the reported death toll of 1,200 Israelis on Oct 7, suggesting it might be a fabrication by Israel.
The former Langkawi MP highlighted a lack of evidence regarding the claimed Israeli casualties and questioned the motive behind not disclosing the aftermath of the alleged Hamas attack.
"Can it be that 1,400 Israelis were not killed? That it was a hoax; that Israel manufactured this lie to justify killing thousands of Palestinians, to justify invading Gaza and imposing Israeli rule over it. Think."
Dr Mahathir said that it was generally believed that Hamas launched a rocket attack against Israel which led to 1,200 Israelis being killed while some were held captive by Hamas on Oct 7.
"But we get to see nothing of the 1,400 Israelis killed on the first day (Note: Israel revises death toll to 1,200). We do not see on TV or still pictures of the 1,400 dead Israelis.
"We do not get to see the buildings which had been rocketed by Hamas. And we see none of the 25 Israeli soldiers who have been killed.
"1,400 dead bodies is a big number. Surely we should be able to see the dead bodies after the rocket explosion. Surely the Israeli press would show the damage to buildings etc. Maybe there were. Maybe the Israelis do not want to show what Hamas had done," Dr Mahathir said in an X post today.
A spokesperson for Israel's foreign ministry said on Friday that the death toll from the Oct 7 Hamas occupation in southern Israel had been revised to around 1,200 from a previous government estimate of 1,400.
Dr Mahathir highlighted that since that day, there have been no more Israeli killings by Hamas.
However, he noted that daily, more than 100 Palestinians are killed by Israeli bombs and rockets.
As of now, the total number of Palestinians killed is estimated to be 15,000.
"Al Jazeera shows the Palestinians carrying dead and wounded people to hospitals.
"Ambulances scuttled between hospitals and streets littered with collapsed buildings.
"Rescue workers worked continuously day and night. And off and on we see flames mushrooming as bombs and rockets explode and burning buildings collapsing," he said.
He further magnified Israel's actions, which included invading Gaza City, entering damaged houses under the pretext of searching for Hamas members.
Despite no reports of armed Palestinians engaging in fighting, Israel claimed that 25 of its soldiers were killed by Palestinians.