The brutality and elation of Hamas militants as they killed Israeli civilians — including babies, young children and the elderly — is evident in an Israeli government compilation of videos shown to about two dozen journalists in New York on Friday.
The videos, which were aired for the first time outside of Israel, consist mostly of GoPro, cell phone and dash cam footage recorded by the attackers themselves. The atrocities and war crimes shown suggest that jihadism has evolved in chilling and perverse new ways.
Hamas appears to have combined the tactics of the Islamic State militant group, the Taliban and other organizations by mounting large-scale attacks that included an estimated 2,000 fighters, mass hostage-taking, rape, beheadings and livestreaming.
On October 7th, Hamas killed over 1,000 Israeli civilians in the worst terrorist attack in the country’s 75 year history. The militants appear at ease in the videos, slowly searching houses filled with signs of everyday life — a freshly-made breakfast, an iPad, a pair of shoes — as Israelis civilians hid in nearby safe rooms. Hamas members appear amazed and elated by the success of their operation and the slow response of Israeli security forces.
Israeli officials who attended the screening told reporters that Hamas attacked more than 30 locations and that it took hours for Israeli forces to dislodge them. “In some places, it took 8 to 12 hours,” said retired Maj. General Mickey Edelstein, currently serving as a reservist. “In some places, it took over a day.”
Edelstein and other officials said that some of the Hamas members had been trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran provides millions of dollars to Hamas annually, according to the U.S. State Department. Iran has expressed support for the Hamas attack but has denied direct involvement. “Their strategic goal is quite clear,” said Israeli Consul General Aviv Ezra. “Their goal is to surround Israel with terror armies.”
Throughout the roughly 45 minutes of footage, the attackers shouted “Allahhu Akbar,” or “God is great,” and cheered as they killed unarmed people. Hamas members shot dead civilians in their living rooms, lit houses on fire, and hurled a grenade at a father trying to protect his sons, killing the father and one child, and partially blinding another. After shooting civilians dead in one car, they pulled their limp bodies from the vehicle, got inside and drove away.
The footage showed Hamas members engaged in the type of butchery associated with ISIS. In one scene, a Hamas member asks another fighter to film him as he fires rounds into the head of an Israeli civilian who appears to already be dead. In another, a group of Hamas members fight over who gets to cut off the head of a Thai man who was apparently working in Israel. One of them then struggles to chop off his head with a hoe.
The footage includes photographs of two babies that had been shot in the head and two infants who appear to have been burnt to a char.
One part of the compilation is an extended version of an audio recording that was played by Israeli diplomats to the U.N. security council this week. On it, a Hamas fighter calls his parents in Gaza and brags, shouting, “Mom, I killed more than ten Jews with my own hands,” he said. “Please be proud of me, dad.”
After his parents praise him, the terrorist repeatedly urges his family to watch his WhatsApp feed to see what he has done. When his mother urges him to return to Gaza, the young man replies “victory or martyrdom.” Israeli officials said they did not know if he died in subsequent fighting or returned to Gaza.
Multiple videos showed Hamas fighters returning to Gaza with Israeli hostages and corpses. In one, the body of an Israeli soldier is dumped on a street in Gaza, and Palestinian men stomp and kick the corpse.
In other videos, there are signs of rape. A video shot by Israeli first responders shows the corpse of a young woman who is naked from the waist down. Israeli officials said they also found evidence that some women who were raped also had their legs broken.
Israeli officials said that first responders were initially barred from taking videos or photographs of the dead out of respect for their families. But a decision was made to film what they found in order to preserve evidence of atrocities. They said the video compilation is the most comprehensive visual evidence of the war crimes carried out by Hamas. Under international law, the intentional targeting of civilians is a war crime.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said Israel had hoped to live in peace next to a Gaza governed by Hamas, but that the October 7th attack had destroyed any hope for that outcome. He and other officials said Israel’s goal is to reduce Hamas’ military capability to the point where it cannot pose a threat of any kind to Israelis. “It will be quite a long war,” Edelstein, the retired general, predicted.
A final group of videos showed Hamas members gunning down unarmed attendees of the SuperNova music festival. One of the videos was taken inside a bunker where young Israelis had taken shelter. After terrorists threw grenades and fired shots into the bunker, the video shows multiple dead bodies crumpled on the ground. Hamas gunmen then shoved three of the survivors, including one severely wounded, into the back of a white pickup truck and drove them back to Gaza.
The injured man is 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg, an American citizen who is one of the 220 people held hostage inside Gaza.
In another video, a group of terrified young Israeli women are seen cowering inside an Israeli military base in the country’s south. They appear to be teenagers who have just been conscripted into the Israeli military at the age of eighteen. The footage shows a Hamas terrorist arriving and finding the young women. Israeli officials said many of them were killed. Others may have been taken captive.