Netanyahu compared Oct. 7 attack to ’16 9/11s’

Claim:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the October 7, 2023, assault by Hamas on Israel “is equal to 40,000 innocent Americans slaughtered in less than 24 hours. That’s 16 times 9/11. Sixteen 9/11s that occurred not very far from here.”

Rating:

During a speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2026—which began with numerous delegates staging a walkout—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made remarks that later circulated widely online, with social media users asserting he described the Oct. 7 attack as being equivalent to “sixteen 9/11s.”

Various posts across platforms like Instagram (archived), X, and Facebook asserted that Netanyahu characterized the October 7 incursions as “equal to 40,000 innocent Americans slaughtered in less than 24 hours. That’s 16 times 9/11 — 16 9/11s.”

This attribution is accurate. Netanyahu was scaling the number of Israeli fatalities from the Oct. 7 attacks against the death toll of the 9/11 terrorist attacks based on the respective populations of both nations.

In his address, Netanyahu mentioned the scale of the casualties inflicted by Hamas before drawing the per-capita comparison to 9/11. He remarked:

These Hamas monsters, they slaughtered Holocaust survivors. They burned babies alive in front of their parents. They beheaded our men. They brutally raped our women and then they murdered them.

Altogether, they slaughtered 1,200 Israelis that day.

I want to give you an idea of what this means for a country of 10 million. Proportionately, this is equal to 40,000 innocent Americans slaughtered in less than 24 hours. That’s 16 times 9/11. Sixteen 9/11s that occurred not very far from here.

The aforementioned quote can be heard at the 11:28 mark in the footage below:

While New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not directly comment on the 9/11 analogy, The New York Times reported that he criticized Netanyahu for airing “baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians.”

As Netanyahu took the podium, he was met with a mix of cheers and jeers alongside the mass delegate walkout. During his address, he defended military actions against Iran while rejecting allegations of genocide in Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a pre-recorded address after the United States declined to issue him a visa for the UNGA gathering. Abbas stated that Palestinians were enduring one of the most perilous eras in their history, accusing Israel of executing a “genocidal war” defined by destruction, starvation, and forced displacement.

Readers interested in further context can explore Snopes’ archive regarding other statements and claims concerning Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sources