Israel shares harrowing footage of killings during Hamas attack to counter denials
Israel has played harrowing footage of killings during the attack by Hamas that left 1,400 people dead.
The 43 minute-long footage was captured by security cameras, body cameras worn by the attackers, vehicle dashboard cameras, social media accounts and videos from mobile phones, the Israeli military said.
It contained clips of Hamas gunmen cheering with apparent joy as they shot civilians on the road, and later stalking the pathways of kibbutzim and killing parents and children in their homes. Much of the footage was too grisly to release.
It was shown to foreign journalists in Tel Aviv on Monday, reflecting a desire from the Israeli military to counter what it has said are attempts to downplay or deny the extent of the attack. Journalists present were not able to record the compilation of footage, but a short exert was released to the public.
The one minute of footage showed Hamas militants flagging down a car as it drove slowly along a rural road. The gunmen open fire, hitting the vehicle, which swerved and halted, revealing two people slumped in the front seats.
Other sequences showed a militant gunman killing wounded female Israeli soldiers and a jubilant Hamas fighter calling his family: “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands.”
Another sequence showed one Hamas gunman shooting the apparently dead bodies of civilians inside a kibbutz in a celebratory manner, and another striking into the neck of a man on the ground using a garden tool.
Another scene showed a father and his two young sons running into what appeared to be a bomb shelter. A Hamas attacker threw a grenade, killing the father and wounding the two boys.
The 43-minute long compilation of footage also included footage the military said was collected from the mobile phones of victims, showing people heading in safe rooms or any shelter they good as the noise of gunfire came closer.
“When we say Hamas is ISIS, it’s not a branding effort,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari of the Israeli military said after the screening. Before the screening, he had said that the material would form part of “a collective memory for the future” for the Israeli people. and that it was international media being shown the footage as Israeli media "do not need to be persuaded”.
“We will not let the world forget about who we are fighting,” Rear Adimiral Hagari said. “We are not talking about the Palestinians. We are talking about Hamas.”
Footage of the Hamas attack has been shared on social media in the last two weeks, but Israeli officials said that they believed the scale of the atrocities needed to be made clear. More than 1,400 people were killed in the Hamas cross-border attack from Israel, with more than 200 believed to have been taken hostage into Gaza.
In response to the attack, Israel has been hitting Hamas-controlled Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, with a near continuous bombardment of airstrikes. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed since the strikes began.
The last 24 hours saw a particularly intense number of strikes, the the Gaza health ministry saying more than 400 people had been killed. Israel said it had struck more than 320 Hamas targets.
About 1.4 million people – more than half of Gaza’s population – have been displaced by the strikes and a call by Israel for north Gaza residents to evacuate south as the Israeli prepares for an expected ground invasion, according to the UN.
That, combined with Israel not letting aid into Gaza beyond a small amount heading through the Gaza-Egypt border has left a humanitarian crisis with aid agencies saying food, water, medical supplies, fuel for power are all running out, or have been depleted already.
