Senator Bernie Sanders, candidate for the Democratic nomination for the US presidential race, said he “thinks” Israel killed over 10,000 Palestinians during the 2014 Gaza war.
In a conversation with the editorial board of the New York Daily News, US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders accused the IDF of killing over 10,000 innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza during the summer 2014 war with the Hamas terror organization.
“Anybody help me out here, because I don’t remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?” he said. A transcript of the meeting was published on Tuesday.
The figure cited was a gross exaggeration, even in Hamas’ books. In fact, only approximately 2,100 people were killed, and about a half of them were terrorists.
“When told that number appeared to be rather inflated,” Sanders added, “I don’t have it in my number…but I think it’s over 10,000. My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed.”
His obvious lack of knowledge regarding Israel’s war with Hamas, which nonetheless did not stop him from making vicious accusations, was not the only issue of concern regarding the Democratic contender, who trails Hillary Clinton in a race to lead the party. Indeed, the entire meeting with the Daily News, in which Sanders was reportedly seeking the paper’s endorsement, was “pretty close to a disaster,” according to the Washington Post.
“Time and again, when pressed to get beyond his rhetoric on the evils of corporate America and Wall Street, Sanders struggled. Often mightily,” the Post reported.
By: Terri Nir, United with Israel