Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan
Rabbi Eli Ben-DahanTomer Neuberg/Flash 90

Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan has condemned comments by US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, in which he falsely claimed Israel killed "10,000 innocents" during 2014's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.

The Deputy Minister mocked Sanders' grossly-inflated statistics - far higher than even the casualty count alleged by Hamas - and said the Democratic Party candidate should get his facts straight before commenting on such matters.

"I invite Sanders to familiarize himself with the facts and the figures on the IDF and Israel's wars," Ben-Dahan told Arutz Sheva.

Sanders made his controversial claims during an all-round disastrous interview with the New York Daily News editorial board, during which the man who has called rival Hillary Clinton "unqualified" to become president exhibited a woeful lack of knowledge on everything from the Middle East to public transport.

"Anybody help me out here, because I don't remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?" he said, after accusing Israel of using "disproportionate" force during the operation.

When told that number appeared to be inflated, he added: "I don't have it in my number...but I think it's over 10,000. My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed. So yeah, I do believe and I don't think I'm alone in believing that Israel's force was more indiscriminate than it should have been."

The real figure is, in fact, just over 2,100 - more than half of them terrorist combatants. Apart from representing the lowest combatant-to-civilian casualty ratio of any conflict ever recorded, the number itself is around a fifth of what Sanders suggested.