‘400 9/11s’: Ezra Klein Puts Reported Palestinian Death Toll in Shocking Terms

AP Photo/Fatima Shbair

New York Times columnist Ezra Klein invoked President Joe Biden’s comments about the Hamas attack on Israel to point out that the number of Palestinians reported killed since is the equivalent of “400 9/11s.”

During an interview with Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp on Tuesday’s edition of The Ezra Klein Show, the host said:

Palestinian health officials say that more than 8,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since Oct. 7. And I want to note here that there is a fog of war. It is possible these numbers are wrong. It is also, of course, possible that, particularly by the end of this, these numbers will be much higher.

But if you take something like the 8,000 number as right, well, then one way the horror of Oct. 7 was driven home, one way its scale was driven home to Americans was to put it in terms of 9/11s. Adjusting for population, Joe Biden said it was like 15 9/11s. If you take that same math, then Gaza’s experience so far around 400 9/11s. What does that do to a population?

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is overseen by Hamas, more than 8,000 people — the majority women and children — have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israel seige. Many have disputed those numbers, pointing out the Health Ministry is part of Gaza’s Hamas-run government, but in prior conflicts its data has been accurate. What’s more, experts argue the scale of the Israeli bombing campaign is consistent with the reported death toll.

In a speech last month, Biden argued that the Hamas attack, in which more than 1,400 Israelis were killed and hundreds more were kidnapped, was the equivalent of fifteen 9/11s.

“Since this terrorist attack— terrorist attack took place, we have seen it described as Israel’s 9/11. But for a nation the size of Israel, it was like 15 9/11s,” claimed Biden. “The scale may be different, but I’m sure those horrors have tapped into some kind of primal feeling in Israel, just like it did and felt in the United States.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.