The Israeli military showed more than 40 minutes of Hamas’s October 7 massacre of hundreds in southern Israel to 200 international journalists, in the hopes of proving the depravity of the attack.
The Israel Defense Forces played the private screening to members of the foreign press after many people around the world have raised doubts about the extent of Hamas’s violence committed against Israeli civilians in recent weeks — what a spokesperson called “a Holocaust-denial-like phenomenon happening in real-time.” The screening, about 43 minutes in length, took place at a closed military base in Tel Aviv, the Times of Israel reported.
Journalists in attendance were not allowed to record the screener, although the IDF approved one clip for media use. Most of the footage was deemed too graphic to release.
The IDF just screened 43 minutes of horrors from the Hamas massacre on October 7 for foreign journalists. I was not there, my colleague @cjkeller8 was.
Here is the one minute of footage approved for mass publication at this point, barring most of it out of respect for the dead. pic.twitter.com/UDmQSrkYBL
— Amy Spiro (@AmySpiro) October 23, 2023
Today @IDF held a private screening for global journalists, showing footage of Hamas bodycams. No cameras were allowed out of respect for the victims.
This is the outcome of the moral equivalence drawn between a flawed democracy and a death-cult. The West has lost its humanity. pic.twitter.com/wfhENDi8oT
— Adir Krafman (@adirkrafman) October 23, 2023
The compilation video, which displayed many scenes of murder, torture, and decapitation, was obtained through call recordings, security cameras, body cameras belonging to Hamas terrorists, victims’ dashboard cameras, social-media accounts of victims and also Hamas terrorists, and cellphone videos taken by terrorists, victims, and first responders. There is reportedly evidence of rape, according to an Israeli military official, but it was not shown during the screener.
Since its surprise invasion of Israel on October 7, Hamas has killed more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and abducted more than 220 people. The Israeli military has since retaliated against the Palestinian group based in Gaza, taking the lives of an estimated 5,000 people.
Notably, two American hostages were released late last week while Monday saw two Israeli hostages return home. At least 30 Americans have died in this attack on Israel.