We both went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington recently to watch 46 minutes of raw footage showing Hamas terrorists’ savage attacks Oct. 7 on innocent Israelis, including women and children.
It was the most horrific, barbaric thing we have ever seen.
>>> Warning: This commentary contains graphic descriptions of acts committed by Hamas.
In witnessing what Hamas animals did that day, we peered into the Ninth Circle of Hell from Dante’s “Inferno,” which is reserved for the most treacherous sinners known to mankind.
If you have read or seen enough on what happened Oct. 7, stop reading here. But as witnesses to this modern-day Holocaust, the two of us feel compelled to describe what we saw so that you, and everyone else in civil society, will never forget.
The film shown at the Israeli Embassy is a compilation of raw footage obtained from GoPro video cameras and smartphones used by captured and killed Hamas terrorists; the phones of innocent victims; surveillance videos from home cameras; kibbutz security cameras; photographs by first responders; phone calls between Hamas terrorists and fellow terrorists or family members intercepted by Israeli officials; and Hamas’ own social media posts.
The film includes closed captioning in English, so we understood what was being said.
Before playing the video compilation, embassy officials said it represented only about 10% of the total amount of evidence gathered by Israeli officials. They said Israel has much more gruesome videos and other evidence, including recordings of the gang rapes of women and the torture of children, among other vile acts.
Out of respect for the victims’ families and a prudent sense of the human capacity to withstand only so much, Israeli officials haven’t shown that evidence to the public.
Officials said that they were showing the video for two reasons: 1) to rebut the notion by some that the attacks didn’t happen or were perpetrated by Israel against its own citizens and 2) to inform policymakers, the media, and influencers of exactly what happened so that they, and those they tell, never forget what Hamas did that day.
>>> Warning: Graphic content follows.
The savagery captured on video falls into five general categories: hunting down and executing human beings; sexual assaults of women and children; beating and kidnapping victims; beheading victims; and burning victims to death.
Some of the scenes we saw have been made public, including footage of Hamas terrorists methodically walking through several kibbutzim, going house-to-house, shooting stray dogs, hunting civilians, and shooting them through windows and doors or inside their own homes.
Throughout the 46-minute film, Hamas terrorists repeatedly shout “Allahu Akbar”—Arabic for “Allah is the greatest”—in a maniacal, frenzied manner. The more they kill, maim, and torture, the faster and louder they shout the incantation. Their bloodlust appears insatiable.
As the terrorists hunt unarmed, defenseless civilians living peacefully in their homes, you can hear them talk to each other. In several instances, as they spot or sense a living person in a home, they refer to the child or woman as “it” instead of “her” or “him.”
“Shoot it in the head.” “Kill it.” Don’t waste any more ammunition, because “it is dead.” The terrorists didn’t see their victims as humans, but only as objects or varmints to exterminate.
In one house, two terrorists find four teenage girls cowering behind and under an office desk. The room is dark, illuminated only by the headlamp of a terrorist.
One terrorist directs another to “shoot it in the head” because “it’s still alive.” You can hear the muffled cry of one girl, then a shot, and then silence. Then two more shots at the bodies.
Much of the footage shows young girls and women, both alive and dead, with blood stains in the crotch area of their shorts or pants. Hamas terrorists yank teenage girls by their hair and jam them into Jeeps.
In at least two videos included in the compilation, traumatized girls have large blood stains on their pants in the crotch and anal areas, clearly indicating repeated, violent sexual assault, gang rape, and sodomy.
One GoPro video from Hamas captures an armed terrorist at the Supernova music festival in southern Israel, where attendees are celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The gunman calmly walks down a line of portable toilets, firing one shot into each unit.
Other videos were taken by Israeli festivalgoers who hid in the portable toilets as the shooting took place. In one, a young man holds his phone, filming from inside as the shooting occurs, his legs shaking uncontrollably.
Later, a first responder’s video depicts a blood-soaked portable toilet.
Some of those taken hostage are shown being thrown into the bed of a pickup truck. A young man, who appears to be missing part of his arm, tries to sit up to make room for an injured man tossed in with him.
The Hamas terrorists also videotaped beheadings, two of which are included in the film.
In one beheading, an Israel Defense Forces soldier in full body armor and helmet is seen shot and on the ground. A Hamas terrorist pulls out a long butcher knife and hacks at the soldier’s exposed neck, at first causing large gashes. The terrorist then begins sawing at the soldier’s neck, pushing down forcefully with each thrust.
Holding on to the soldier’s helmet with one hand, the terrorist severs the head from the body. He picks up the soldier’s head with the helmet and gleefully celebrates his accomplishment as the camera focuses on blood, sinew, and neck muscle as well as the headless corpse.
A middle-aged male civilian was the victim of the other beheading we saw in the film. He is seen alive, lying on the floor. A Hamas terrorist picks up a long garden hoe, lifts the pole above his head, and smashes the blunt weapon into the throat of the helpless man.
As shrieks of “Allah is the greatest” intensify, this murderer keeps whacking the neck of the dying man until his head comes off.
Dozens of videos and still photographs taken by first responders show burning, burned, and charred bodies. In photos and videos reminiscent of the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Treblinka during World War II, we saw mounds of charred and burned bodies.
One photo shows the charred body of a barely recognizable woman, a handkerchief tied across her mouth and around her head. This indicates she was burned alive, her muffled screams silenced by the gag.
***
We had mixed emotions about watching this compilation of videos from Oct. 7.
On the one hand, we didn’t want to see anything like this. We knew that once we saw it, the images would haunt us forever.
On the other hand, as professionals whose job it is to explain the world as it is, we felt obliged to watch the film.
The fact is Hamas terrorists carried out a modern-day Holocaust in Israel by slaughtering Jews on Oct. 7. They committed the most vile, disgusting war crimes imaginable, with no justification either morally or under international law.
The world should never forget what they did. We certainly won’t.
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