Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday said that more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the highest U.S. official to confirm such staggering numbers.

Austin revealed the figure after he was asked how many Palestinian women and children have been killed by Israel since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.

“It’s over 25,000,” he said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing centered on his secret hospitalizations in December and January.

The Pentagon quickly issued a clarification that Austin was “citing an estimate from the Hamas-controlled health ministry that more than 25,000 total Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.”

Gaza's health ministry has typically provided updates on the number of civilians killed in the narrow strip of land over the course of........

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