Thread by @dpatrikarakos

I’m in #Israel 🇮🇱 for @unherd as war with #Hamas intensifies. Follow me for updates from the ground. This am I attended a session where Israel is releasing “raw footage” of the 7th October massacres. Devices were banned from the initial session. Here is my report. THREAD

IDF Spokesman: “we want people to understand what we are fighting for. This is something else. Something has happened to #israel 🇮🇱. This is a crime vs humanity. This is good v bad. Death v life. These will will do anything. [commot any crime]. And it’s nothing to do with Islam.

IDF Spokesman: “why did they strap GoPros to themselves? Why do they call the family of who they murdered? Bc they are proud of what they did?
Rape - where is Islam?
Burn - where is Islam?
Behead - where is Islam?

[tbc he’s saying none of the above has anything to do w. Islam)

IDF Spoke: “this is a crime against humanity. They killed babies, old people, sick people…we won’t allow the world to forget who we are fighting.

Hamas wants dead Gazans. You don’t take human shields, you don’t burrow under hospitals otherwise.

This is Hamas not Palestinians.

The footage starts:

A truck with Hamas terrorists on board. They whoop and cheer. They fan into the street. Shooting at cars. They drag blood soaked corpses out of vehicles onto the street. A female body is thrown onto the road. “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!” Is the repeated cry.

Footage:

Hamas steak into streets & across a roundabout. [security failures here are monumental].

Hamas enter a kibbutz. A car pulls up and the driver leave left to speak to the checkpoint. A Hamas terror at emerges from the right & shoots him. Blood spatters the insides.

Footage:

GoPro footage from a Hamas fighter. His gin sticks pit in front of him like in a video game. He runs through a kibbutz. He sees a dog run eagerly toward him. He lowers the rifle and shots the dog - 2-3 shots - stone dead.

IDF now sending through footage. Take a look for yourself:
videoidf.azureedge.net/9754977a-45e4-…

Footage:

A man in his underpants & his two children, also in underpants run screaming. Hamas enter, they throw a grenade & kill the father. The take the 2 kids - covered with their father's blood - into a room.

"Daddy's dead," sreams one. "It's not a prank. He's really dead."

Footage: (Cont)

"I wish I was dead, I wish i was dead." screams the child.

Footage moves: a man in a football shirt lies on the ground covered in blood. He moans in pain. A Hamas terrorist picks up a hoe & starts hitting him over and over on the head, screaming "Alluha Akbar!"

The footage moves to a rave. Partygoers run screaming. Men & women are dragged screaming out of cars. Bloodied corpses are thrown into the dirt & surrounded by Hamas cheering & whooping.

A terrified, handcuffed female hostage is dragged out of a truck amid a cheering crowds.

Audio is put up on screen: A Hamas terrorist calls his father:

"Father, I killed 10 Jews! Check your WhatsApp! I sent you the photos! Father, I killed 10 Jews! I killed 10 Jews with my bare hands. check your WhatsApp. Father, be proud of me!"

Hamas terrorists move through a kibbutz. One lowers his rifle & shoots what seems to be an elderly lady - but I stress the footage is not totally clear - she moans in pain.

Camera pans through corridors to track rivulets of blood. It's thick like a riverbed.

Images are put up of the burned babies - so small you could cradle them in the crook of your arm. A journalist who is also a parent tells me the blanket it was swaddled in is given to babies that are either newborns or close to it.

Footage:

In another scene Hamas terrorists break into an office. An Israeli cowers under a desk. The terrorists ask him questions (about the Quran I am told), the terrified man shouts "Alluha Akbar!" & then they shoot him dead.

These are Daesh tactics - straight up.

There is a break. We come back to a briefing from Gen Edelstein from Gaza command. They came to kill & burn civilians. Not military personnel. Civilians.

I’ve been fighting Hamas for many years but I honestly never thought they’d be this violent.”

Edelstein: “we told civilians to evacuate northern Gaza. Yes. [we go in] and there are civilian casualties. But we are not looking for kids to kill. We are not looking to kill hostages bc they are not walking fast enough.”

Edelstein: "We do not find kids and then force them to go and ask their neighbours to come out, and then they come out we kill them."

Edelstein: ***important***

“We have evidence of #Iran involvement. I cannot elaborate too much, but there are trained cells within #Gaza.”

Conclusion:

There are many broader issues around occupation & the need for humanitarian assistance & proportionality. #Israel MUST do everything to protect the civilians of #Gaza.

But what I saw today has nothing to do with resistance. It was about wanting to kill Jews.

ENDS.