New York City’s mayoral frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani, is drawing sharp criticism for what critics are calling a perfunctory and tone-deaf response to the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The Democratic Socialist candidate, who has been working to win over skeptical Jewish voters, may have undermined those efforts with a statement that reads less like a solemn remembrance than an indictment of the Israeli government.

Mr. Mamdani opened by acknowledging Hamas’s “war crime” and calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza. Yet his brief nod to Israel — a mere two sentences — was quickly eclipsed by three paragraphs devoted to excoriating the Israeli government’s military response.

“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,” Mr. Mamdani wrote, citing casualty figures from the Hamas-run health ministry that are unverified and make no distinction between civilians and combatants.

He went on to accuse the American government of “complicity” in the destruction and demanded an end to what he termed “occupation and apartheid.”

“These last two years have demonstrated the very worst of humanity. We must answer it by modeling the very best: a relentless pursuit of our higher ideals and an unwavering commitment to universal human rights,” he concluded.

The statement sparked immediate backlash online, with critics accusing the 33-year-old candidate of minimizing an attack that claimed more Jewish lives than any single event since the Holocaust.

“You spend a few lines half heartedly expressing manufactured sympathy over Oct 7th and the rest spreading blood libel against Israel, over fake accusations of genocide,” a human rights lawyer, Arsen Ostrovsky, commented. “Fact is, every day you are simply enabling and supporting Hamas!”

An Israeli author and left-wing activist, Margalit Otsri, who has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned Mr. Mamdani for downplaying Hamas’s atrocities, including well-documented cases of rape and torture.

Adding to the controversy, Mr. Mamdani cited a death toll of “more than 1,100 Israelis” — lower than the widely accepted figure of 1,200 fatalities reported by the Department of State and the United Nations. Ms. Otsri described the statement as “almost offensive in how lightly it describes the horrors that took place.”

A journalist and former Bush administration speechwriter, David Frum, offered a more cutting assessment, calling Mr. Mamdani’s post “genuinely useful.” He wrote: “The chilly formulaic language about the 10/7 atrocity … the intense angry passion of the denunciation of Israel’s self-defense … together they arrestingly reveal what the author cares about and what/who he does not care about.”