JERUSALEM (BP) – Global leaders continue to misjudge Israel in accusing the nation of war crimes in its response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Baptist Press in advance of the tragedy’s third anniversary.
“Israel is held to a standard that no one else has ever been held to,” Huckabee said. “What would America do to get 250 Americans out of captivity who were being beaten, raped and starved? If that’s our sons and daughters, what do we do?”
The attack was the deadliest in the history of modern Israel. Had Oct. 7 occurred on U.S. soil, adjusted for the same casualty-to-population ratio, fatalities would have neared 40,000 and more than 8,000 would have been taken hostage, Huckabee said, noting Israel’s 2023 population of about 10 million and America’s 336 million.
“So you’re looking at roughly (33) times the population. And so if you took the 1,200 people that were murdered on October the 7th and scaled it to the American population, and if you took the 251 kidnapped on that day and scaled it to the American population,” he said, “you would have numbers somewhat in that range.”
Allegations that Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have committed genocide and additional war crimes are nonsense, said Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor and the first evangelical U.S. ambassador to Israel.
Israel “did not want to be at war for as long as they were in Gaza. The whole thing would have been over on October the 8th if Hamas had let the hostages free,” Huckabee said, “but they didn’t.”
Despite the ceasefire brokered a year ago, intermittent fighting continues, with nearly 1,400 people killed and 4,991 injured between the Oct. 10, 2025, ceasefire and Sept. 24, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency reported Sept. 24.
Fighting between Israel and Palestine had intensified and ebbed for decades before Hamas and other militants executed the surprise October 2023 attack, killing 1,200, injuring nearly 5,000 and taking 251 hostages. Among casualties were 46 Americans and more than 300 individuals from 50 other countries. A dozen Americans were among the hostages.
In swift retaliation, Israel destroyed much of Gaza within two years, killing nearly 74,000 Palestinian civilians and militants, injuring 175,000 others, blasting buildings and homes and leaving Palestinians without adequate medical care, food and clean water.
Huckabee anticipates the third anniversary of the Hamas attack will stir a great deal of sadness, and enforce the resolve, “never again.” He has prioritized celebrating the return of all surviving and deceased hostages, the remains of the last one recovered in January, and encourages Americans to consider the continuing impact of Oct. 7th.
“The first thing is to celebrate that all the hostages are home … which is a much more pleasant memory than October 7th,” he said. “I think it’ll also be a time to just reflect upon the unbelievable impact that October 7th has had on the entire nation of Israel. I don’t think Americans can fully appreciate it.”
Huckabee points to the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil Sept. 11, 2001, in comparison.
“Imagine not just the reaction of the American people, but the impact. We’re 25 years from 9/11. We’re still under the effect of that. Our lives forever changed,” Huckabee said. “Everything changed – the way we do things. And people remember it with a great deal of sobriety 25 years later.
“We’re just three years past Oct. 7th, and it still has an incredible impact.”
Everyone he’s met in Israel during his ambassadorship has memories of being personally impacted, he said, with either a family member, close friend, coworker or at least an acquaintance killed or wounded.
Gazans continue to face economic and humanitarian struggles as talks continue regarding its rebuild and recovery, with the Board of Peace appointed by President Donald Trump projecting a cost of $71 billion in the coming decade.
Before the war, Gaza Strip’s population was 2.4 million people and was growing by nearly 2.7 percent annually. Today, the population is about 2.1 million, the Israeli non-profit monitoring group Gisha reported Sept. 3, based on numbers from the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Nearly all residents are internally displaced, homeless and living in temporary tents.
Huckabee acknowledges the tragedy of the Gaza Strip, including civilian deaths and economic destruction, but attributes the realities to Hamas military tactics that endanger civilians, and clandestinely mobilize civilians in battle. Hamas intentionally moved civilians to areas Israel targeted as Hamas holdouts, Huckabee charged, and built military assets in hospitals, mosques and various civilian locations. The tactics gave Israel no other option than to continue to try and free the hostages, he said, and to deter attacks on Israeli civilians.
“It’s horrific. I think there’s no other way to describe it,” Huckabee said. “But the tragedy is because Hamas prolonged it. There were many people who were killed that were civilians. That’s one of those things that makes it the greatest tragedy.”
Huckabee attended commemorative events in Israel, but will be in Little Rock, Ark., on the actual anniversary. There, his daughter, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, will join him at a commemorative event, including the ambassador’s 3 p.m. address to the National Association of Christian Lawmakers.
He appreciates his post in Jerusalem, where he said he’s found a welcoming home as an evangelical Christian. He and his wife attend Jerusalem Baptist Church, where Huckabee says he plays the bass guitar every Sunday in the praise band.
“I find that it’s very comfortable for me to be a Christian here. When I say comfortable, no one harasses me. I’m respected as a Christian. Everybody knows I’m not Jewish,” he said. “I was the first evangelical ambassador to ever serve in this post. And I think I had some misgivings. How would I be received? Would people say, ‘Oh, wow, this is terrible. The guy’s not even Jewish.’?”
He described the reaction as quite the opposite, having been received by both the American and Israeli Jewish communities.
“They appreciate that a person who is not Jewish would still have an understanding and an appreciation and respect for the Jewish people and the state of Israel,” Huckabee said, “which I obviously do because as a Christian, I recognize that everything they believe, everything they believe – the full foundation of the Old Testament – is the foundation of my Christian faith. Jesus my Savior was Jewish.”