The Israeli Foreign Ministry blasted New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday for “acting as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda” over his statement on the second anniversary of the October 7 massacre accusing the Jewish state of genocide and war crimes.

The rebuke of the far-left mayoral frontrunner comes ahead of the Nov. 4 election in New York City, where his anti-Israel views have caused a split among American Jewry.

“Two years after Hamas launched its barbaric massacre against Israel and the Jewish people, Mamdani has chosen to act as a mouthpiece for Hamas propaganda—spreading Hamas’s fake genocide campaign,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry wrote on X. “By repeating Hamas’s lies, he excuses terror and normalizes antisemitism. He stands with Jews only when they are dead. Shameful.”

In his earlier statement issued on the anniversary of the single worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Mamdani said the U.S. government had been “complicit” in a “genocidal war” against Hamas.

“Two years ago today, Hamas carried out a horrific war crime, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and kidnapping 250 more. I mourn these lives and pray for the safe return of every hostage still held and for every family whose lives were torn apart by these atrocities,” Mamdani wrote.

“In the aftermath of that day, Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli government launched a genocidal war: a death toll that now far exceeds 67,000; with the Israeli military bombing homes, hospitals and schools into rubble,” Mamdani added, citing the unverified figures issued by the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza. “Every day in Gaza has become a place where grief itself has run out of language. I mourn these lives and pray for the families that have been shattered. Our government has been complicit through it all.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 26 that the ratio of noncombatant to combatant casualties is less than 2 to 1 in Gaza.

“That’s an astoundingly low ratio, lower than NATO’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially when you consider that Gaza is one of the most densely populated urban areas on earth,” Netanyahu said.

The two other mayoral candidates offered unequivocal condemnation of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack and expressed support for Israel. 

“To the Jewish people, I stand with you,” said former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent. “I mourn with you, and I will forever be by your side in the fight against evil and antisemitism in all forms.”

Republican Curtis Sliwa called Tuesday for a “commemoration of mourning” for the lives lost, and for those that continue to be lost.”

American hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman on Tuesday posted Mamdani’s statement issued 36 hours after the Hamas-led massacre two years ago—which saw some 1,200 people killed, including 43 Americans and 251 others, including a dozen Americans, abducted to Gaza. 

“I mourn the hundreds of people killed across Israel and Palestine in the last 36 hours,” Mamdani wrote, weeks before the Israeli military operation in Gaza began. “The path toward a just and lasting peace can only begin by ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid,” he added.

“Is this who we want to be our mayor?” Ackman asked at the top of his post.

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