The leader of the terrorist group Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, spread lies in his first public statement since the October 7 attacks this Monday, December 25.
From his retreat in Qatar, 2,000 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, Sinwar inflated the number of Israeli casualties since the start of the war.
In his speech, the terrorist spoke of 1,500 Israeli soldiers killed since the start of the war.
As of this Monday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had officially confirmed only 156 casualties, without taking into account the more than 300 dead in the October 7 attacks.
Sinwar also lied about the number of Israeli forces injured. Officially there are fewer than 200 and not the 3,500 that the terrorist claims.
The Hamas leader also lied when he claimed his group had partially or completely destroyed 750 Israeli military vehicles.
There are no official figures for this statistic, but the commander of the IDF Technology and Maintenance Division, Brigadier General Ariel Shima, stated that very few vehicles were irreversibly damaged.
Costs of war for Israel
Also on Monday, Israel's Finance Ministry released a forecast that military operations in Gaza should last at least until February.
In this twomonth period, the war is expected to cost an additional US$14 billion (R68 billion) over the next two months, which is expected to triple the previously forecast budget deficit.
The ministry's deputy budget commissioner, Itai Temkin, said that until then the ministry was operating with an operational deficit of 2.25% of gross domestic product (GDP).
The index is now expected to reach up to 5.9% of GDP.
At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared this Monday in a speech to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, that the war would continue “until victory.”
He was then booed by family members of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
In total, around 240 people were kidnapped…
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