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The most well-documented massacre in history
The IDF holds a special briefing to foreign journalists revealing never-before-seen footage from the October 7 attack
Warning: Many of the descriptions detailed in this article may be difficult to read. Discretion is advised.
The horrors of the October 7 onslaught by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians was not only one of the worst crimes in modern history, but also one of the most documented atrocities.
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Hamas terrorists used a variety of means to record and celebrate the onslaught, including go-pro cameras, body cams, and even the personal phones of their victims — some were used to film the slaughters and send it to the victims' families or upload it to their personal social media. Other footage was obtained from the dash cameras of Israeli cars, CCTV, and the social media accounts of Israelis who found themselves at the heart of the inferno.
The Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) chief spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Monday held a special screening to foreign journalists with never-before-seen raw footage of the horrors committed by Hamas on the morning of October 7.
The recordings I witnessed, together with dozens of other journalists from around the globe, were of some of the worst acts of barbarity that the human mind can fathom. The extent of pure brutality, cruelty and evil is unimaginable.
The 43-minute video of raw material begins with dashboard cameras documenting the view of innocent drivers who were faced with dozens of terrorists in each location, using automatic weapons to spray their cars with scores of bullets, leaving no chance to escape. Another video showed Hamas' militants stopping a passing car and as it slows down, hitting it with bullets and pulling the bleeding family members from the vehicle onto the ground.
CCTV footage outside Kibbutz Be'eri in southern Israel showed how the well-trained Hamas terrorists invaded the gated community after shooting at a driver who opened the entrance gate at close range. Bodycams then show the armed group walking freely through the serene community that moments later turned into a bloodbath. Hamas terrorists are seen shooting indiscriminately before destroying an ambulance and downing an innocent dog with more automatic fire.
As they walk through the homes, heart-wrenching screaming of a female victim can be heard in the background. In the next shot, a family home is torched with its inhabitants likely still inside. The group then moves to the next house, searching for victims through the window, followed by the familiar terrifying sound of machine guns. As the group enters one of the homes, a water bottle and a coffee cup can be seen on the kitchen table — testimony to the life that existed only minutes prior to the attack.
In what is perhaps the most horrific video I had watched thus far, a CCTV camera inside a family's home shows the moments of terror as a father and his two young sons, still in their underwear, rush to find shelter amid gunshots and rocket alarms. The three flee to a safe room just outside their house, and in the next shot, a terrorist can be seen throwing a grenade into the shelter. The father can be seen collapsing immediately after the explosion. The terrorists then violently pull the two young sons, in complete shock, back into the house.
The two boys can be heard crying in disbelief as they beg the terrorists in English: "I want my mom!" They then shout to each other in Hebrew saying, "We are going to die!" One of the boys who has a massive piece shrapnel in his right eye says, "I cannot see! Why am I alive?"
In the following shot, filmed hours later, the mother can be seen bent over in agony next the father of her children, who lays dead outside the shelter.
Scenes of the devastating massacre continue to run on the screen: victims being pulled out of their cars, lifeless burned bodies being dragged like rags. In another recording, an old man is shot in the head as a foreign national becomes the next victim, slaughtered by countless blows of a hoe to his head, facing up.
Other videos show a number of families laying on the floor in bloody rooms, executed. A group of family members who were taken handcuffed outside their home is then seen bleeding on the side of the street after being shot dead.
Rivers of blood, horrors on a scale not seen since the Holocaust. I saw an innocent baby, less than one year old, shot in the head in his cradle. Other babies, their bodies burned completely, turned to char. A kibbutz dining room turned into a morgue, dozens of victims laying lifeless on the ground.
Alongside the videos, a recording of a phone call between a Gazan terrorist and his parents is displayed onscreen with a translation in the captions. "Father, look at your phone, I sent you pictures! I killed 10 Jews dad! I'm in a kibbutz, the blood is on my hands father! Mom, I killed 10 Jews! 10 Jews with my own hands!" "May god save you, my hero," the mother replies. In the background, a female victim is heard desperately crying in pain.
Other horrors I was forced to watch today included the bodies of beheaded soldiers, a communal dance around the body of an Israeli soldier in the heart of Gaza, a handcuffed and bleeding soldier dragged out of a stolen jeep — possibly after being sexually abused - as well as dozens of Israeli victims, women, children, babies and elderly, shot on the side of the roads.
A victim of the Nova music festival recorded the moments of horror as terrorists broke into the peaceful festival with rockets, motorized paragliders, and trucks loaded with automatic machine guns. The victim calls to his friends to lay low, but as the bullets hit them he calls out in agony: "Run! Run!" The fate of him and his friends is unknown, but at least 260 partygoers were murdered at the music festival alone. Other victims filmed themselves hiding inside a large bin, similar to other footage filmed by the terrorists, survivors can be seen taken as hostages amid the cheers and joy of the perpetrators. Another group can be seen hiding in a shelter, bloodcurdling cries for help rising from amputated victims, as the sounds of constant gunshots surround the shelter and come closer and closer.
The IDF spokesperson Hagari says Hamas documented the crimes in order to indoctrinate its followers. In a briefing prior to the screening, Hagari stressed that sharing the gruesome videos and other recordings was important "in order to understand what we are fighting for," referring to the killings as "a crime against humanity."
Referring to the victims and damages from Israel's counter offensive in Gaza, Hagari stressed that "whoever decided to go ahead with this crime, understood the consequences completely," adding "Hamas' leaders want the images of dead Gazans, you do not do what you did otherwise".
Hagari says it is difficult to speak of the atrocities of Hamas in the context of the war or the conflict with the Palestinians, and that Hamas' comparison to ISIS is not a slogan but rather important for understanding the ideology of the group, which he says will not allow the existence of Israelis or any other existence other than Hamas.
"Who kills, rapes, and beheads babies? Who kidnaps babies? Why kidnap old sick people?" Questions no one has good answers for.
*Out of respect to the families we refrain from pointing the exact locations of some of the attacks.