On Saturday morning, a Gazan civilian started a Facebook livestream on the border with Israel.
This livestream went uninterrupted for over 30 minutes and allows us an unprecedented view into the initial Hamas assault, and atrocities, around Nir Oz. (thread)
Content warning
One note, the Facebook livestream remained up for at least 7 hours, garnering thousands of reactions.
I have mapped out the entire route taken by the streamer (red line), geolocating over 40 unique points, with major events highlighted.
The stream starts with a burning IDF Merkava Mk.4, destroyed at the border fence.
A number of civilians and Hamas terrorists are milling around. The stream does not show it, but later a group of both armed and unarmed Gazans pull a deceased crewmember out and beat the body.
A pair cart away the tank's coaxial .50 HMG
The streamer then heads east, following other civilians and Hamas militants as they head both on foot and by vehicle toward Nir Oz.
Roughly 13 minutes in, a Hamas green over grey third generation Mitsubishi L200 pulls up to the streamer's location. Note the truck bed.
The streamer continues to head east towards Nir Oz.
At this point, there are a number of unarmed civilians heading in the same direction.
10 minutes later, the Mitsubishi returns from Nir Oz. There is a dead Israeli civilian hanging out of the truck bed. The truck continues towards Gaza.
The streamer now boards a motorcycle.
They arrive at Nir Oz a few minutes later, and disembark next to another pair of motorcycles. Shots can be heard from the kibbutz.
Content warning after this point.
Thirty minutes in, the streamer then makes it to a shelter at the edge of the Kibbutz. There are a number of armed Hamas militants at the entrance. The streamer pushes by them, gaining a view of the shelter.
The shelter is covered in blood.
There are at least 8 dead or wounded Israeli civilians in the shelter. The militants in the doorway shoot one who appears to still be alive, but wounded, several times.
The stream cuts off at this point.
It is hard to exactly quantify the number of people in the video.
I counted more than 30 armed individuals, and at least 50 unarmed. This was contained to a relatively small area, and a large number headed east towards Nir Oz.
I can confirm the streamer was shot at a later point, but survived.
Two days ago he posted that Facebook had restricted some features on his account in relation to the video, telling him that it had violated community guidelines.
The restrictions expire next month.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.