During his address at the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to contextualize the scale of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel. By comparing the event to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Netanyahu argued that the loss of life in Israel, when adjusted for population size, was equivalent to 9/11 occurring 16 times.

Netanyahu utilized these figures to emphasize the severity of the security crisis facing his nation. According to the data presented in his speech, 1,200 individuals were killed during the initial assault, and 251 people were abducted and taken as hostages into Gaza. The speech was intended to garner international sympathy and justify Israel's ongoing military response in the region. While the figures provided by the Prime Minister are consistent with the Israeli government's official tally, the framing of the event as a '16-fold 9/11' is a rhetorical device used to highlight the disproportionate impact of the attack on a smaller nation's civilian population. The address serves as a central pillar of Israel's diplomatic messaging, aiming to maintain global support for its military objectives against Hamas.