Mamdani faces bipartisan backlash over October 7 social media post
Elie Wiesel Foundation Chairman Elisha Wiesel joins 'The Story' to discuss New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani facing bipartisan backlash over his social media post regarding the October 7 attacks.
The allegations of genocide against Israel took more hits this week following the reported admission by a senior member of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Israel that claims had not been independently verified. This comes as the Palestinian Ministry of Health data shows Gaza’s population grew in 2025.
Critics say the accusations fueled antisemitism around the world and that those pushing the genocide claims — including major international media outlets — need to be made accountable for their words.
In September 2025, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel (COI) released a report stating that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza since October 2023. In the report, the COI cited an article from the Guardian stating that 83% of Gazans killed in the conflict were civilians.
Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, South African Judge Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, right, speaks next to Commission Member Chris Sidoti during a press conference in Geneva on September 16, 2025. (Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
Following the release of data from the COI commissioner, Chris Sidoti, in an interview last week reported by JNS and posted on X was asked whether the COI had independently established that the remainder of Palestinians said to be killed in the fighting were civilians, Sidoti said, "No, we didn’t because we don’t have that information … We literally do not know, nor does anybody else know, including the IDF, how many militants were there."
The former chair of the committee, Navanethem "Navay" Pillay, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last week.
Israeli soldiers inspect the burnt cars of festival-goers at the site of an attack on the Nova Festival by Hamas gunmen from Gaza, near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. (REUTERS/Amir Cohen)
The Palestinian MOH Health Information Unit recently released statistics on overall mortality in Gaza for 2025. This is the first update to include non-violent deaths since 2022, prior to the outbreak of conflict following the terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.
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The MOH reported that 24,650 deaths were registered in 2025, with 18,085 (73.4%) being males and 6,565 (26.6%) being females. 70.1% of deaths, or 17,286 cases, were attributed to direct targeting in the war.
The MOH also reported 50,227 live births in 2025. Fox News Digital reached out to officials at the ministry but did not get a response by press time.
Elliot Malin, president at Stratos Council, told Fox News Digital that the MOH data is further evidence against accusations of genocide. With the number of live births in 2025 far greater than the number of deaths, Malin says it is "very hard for us to infer the intent of Israel was to destroy Palestinians in Gaza to a substantial portion."
Gazans walk with boxes of humanitarian aid they received at a distribution centre run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). (Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images)
"We’re not seeing a population under threat. We are seeing that it is actually able to sustain itself," Malin said. He took issue with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declaration last year that famine had reached Gaza in the summer of 2025. Malin said that "if the population is sustaining and growing through this, what they call a famine, it indicates that there is enough caloric intake to sustain the population."
Gabriel Epstein, senior policy associate at Israel Policy Forum, also told Fox News Digital that widespread allegations of genocide are not supported by the MOH report. First, the report "absolutely" demonstrates population growth in 2025, according to Epstein, who added it would "be surprising" if the population of Gaza, "one of the youngest…in the world," was not growing.
While he says that it is impossible to discern the actual rate of population growth given factors like emigration and immigration, Epstein said that "the argument that we would need to make to say that there was negative population growth in 2025 would be to more than double the number of both violent and non-violent deaths."
A woman covers her hair with a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf and raises her fist while holding a placard reading "Gaza Genocide" during an anti-Israel rally on Oct. 9, 2026, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The sign is part of a series of downloadable pre-made graphics created by organizers of the global protest. (Annice Lyn/Getty Images)
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Andrew Fox, senior associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital that "the data now shows that there was no famine in Gaza." He said that the allegations play into "the ages-old blood libel of Jews killing children and undoubtedly stoked the global fires of antisemitism. Agencies and the media who shared these false allegations have blood on their hands."
Epstein said that the latest MOH data is strong proof against the statements from external organizations who used estimates and ratios of non-violent deaths from other conflict zones to suppose that the MOH’s ongoing count of the death toll in Gaza was inaccurate, and that deaths had likely reached multiple hundreds of thousands. These estimated figures were largely used to drive the narrative that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. He said that current MOH figures "really eliminate the possibility that there is a much higher death toll driven by non-violent or non-trauma deaths."
Palestinians carry aid supplies that entered Gaza on trucks through Israel, in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip on July 29, 2025. (REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas)
He noted that comparing the latest report with ongoing MOH data on overall casualties throughout the war shows that the MOH was not "missing the vast, vast majority of [malnutrition-related] deaths you would have needed to be missing to justify the IPC’s assessment" that famine had reached parts of Gaza in summer 2025.
The IPC did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions about how new information impacts its prior declaration of famine.
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Palestinians attend a rally calling for an end to the war, in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, on March 25, 2025. (AFP via Getty Images)
In the MOH’s favor, Epstein said that the current tranche of figures supports a real attempt at honest accounting from the health organization, which was accused of inflating civilian casualties — particularly those of women and children — during the early days of the war.
In its latest report, however, the MOH does not distinguish how many terrorists were among those killed in the conflict. In fact, it states that "The number of deaths among males was approximately 4.9 times the number of deaths among females within this group — attributed principally to the direct targeting of working-age men during military operations."
Smoke and a ball of fire rise over buildings in Gaza City on Oct. 9, 2023 during an Israeli air strike. (Photo by Sameh Rahmi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
A spokesperson from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Fox News Digital that, "The IDF targets terrorists and military objectives, not civilians based on their age or gender. The fact that more military-age men are disproportionately among those eliminated is consistent with the fact that terrorist organizations are predominantly composed of men in this age group. It does not demonstrate that the IDF targets individuals because they are men or of a certain age."
The spokesperson added that, "Targets are selected based on their military nature or an individual’s involvement in terrorist organizations or participation in hostilities, in accordance with international law and IDF directives. Unlike Hamas, which deliberately targets Israeli civilians, the IDF takes all feasible precautions to mitigate harm to civilians and operates under a structured targeting framework designed to ensure the identification of lawful military objectives."
Members of Hamas, march with guns in the streets of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on May 28, 2021. (NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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Epstein also pushed back against the MOH claim that working-aged men are being purposefully targeted. Epstein said that "military-aged men aren't appearing disproportionately because the IDF was targeting military-aged men as such, but because the vast majority of militants come from that range." He said that "Gaza is unique in how heavily militarized its male population is."
Epstein added that available 2025 data does not support the claim that the IDF acted with the intent to cause harm to the population. Not only do the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks and hybridization of civilian and military structures in Gaza provide a rationale for military targeting, Epstein emphasized that the IDF has taken numerous mitigation measures to avoid civilian casualties.
Requests for comment to the Palestinian Ministry of Health were not returned by press time.
