Israel has said it will release unedited, uncensored footage from Hamas’s ruthless attacks on unsuspecting civilians on October 7 to counter what it calls a “Holocaust denial-like phenomenon” amid the backlash to its airstrikes the Gaza Strip.
Government spokesman Eylon Levy told journalists last night that a series of raw clips from the body cameras of dead Hamas attackers would be shown to journalists to show the “barbarism” against Israelis.
“The IDF has collected body camera footage captured by Hamas death squads as they rampaged through communities in southern Israel, slaughtering everyone in sight,” Levy began.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this… As we work to defeat the terrorist organization, we are witnessing a Holocaust denial-like phenomenon unfolding in real time as people realize the extent of the atrocities committed by the Hamas committed against us, questioning people and actually recording it to glorify this violence.’
This is part of Israel’s response to the backlash over the incessant bombardment of Gaza, which is believed to have killed more than 5,000 Palestinians since October 7.
The screening of the footage was shown to journalists in Tel Aviv this morning at 11:30 a.m. local time.
Web has contacted the Israeli government press office to request the footage.
“The IDF has collected body camera footage captured by Hamas death squads as they rampaged through communities in southern Israel, slaughtering everyone in sight,” Levy said
In previously seen footage, a Hamas gunman is seen taking a civilian hostage after shooting many others in cold blood. Web has requested unedited, unpublished footage from the Israeli government’s press office
A man examines blood stains on the floor of a house in Kibbutz Nir Oz, on the Gaza Strip border, on October 19, 2023, following the October 7 Hamas attack. Web has requested unedited, unpublished footage from the Israeli government’s press office
In this image previously shared online, the bodies of two Israelis murdered in their homes can be seen. Web has requested unedited, unpublished footage of Hamas attacks from the Israeli government press office
A house is completely destroyed after it was burned down by Hamas terrorists during the attack on Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border on October 11, 2023 in Be’eri, Israel
An Israel Defense Forces source provided a photo of the blood-soaked child’s bed at Kibbutz Kerem Shalom after a Hamas-led attack on the house
Levy’s statement came as the Israel Defense Forces released what it said was evidence of Hamas rocket launch sites between mosques, schools and kindergartens in Gaza.
A series of satellite images shared on the IDF’s official website and social media accounts show what they believe are launch pits dug into the ground right next to civilian structures – which Israel says supports its claims that Hamas is using the Palestinian people as human shields.
Two suspected launch sites were located just a stone’s throw from each other, one in the garden of a mosque and another just a few meters from a kindergarten.
A third was seen opposite a UN building in Gaza and a fourth was located opposite the Manfaluti Secondary School for Boys.
Geolocation of images provided by the IDF confirmed that the locations given were correct, and analysts pointed out that previous satellite images taken in September did not show launch sites – suggesting that they had been established recently.
“Since the beginning of the war, the terrorist organization Hamas has been exploiting civilians and civilian facilities such as kindergartens, schools and mosques to fire rockets at Israel.” “Hamas deliberately fires its rockets at Israeli civilians,” said IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari.
The presence of missile launch sites at the specified locations could not be independently verified.
An aerial view of a Hamas rocket launch site near a kindergarten in a location indicated as Gaza in this handout image released on October 22, 2023, according to the Israel Defense Forces
An aerial view of a Hamas rocket launch site near a mosque, according to the Israel Defense Forces. The mosque is just a stone’s throw from the kindergarten
A third alleged launch site was seen opposite a UN building in Gaza
A fourth site was reportedly spotted next to two schools in Gaza
A rocket is fired from the coast of the Gaza Strip towards Israel by fighters from the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of the Hamas movement
Israeli warplanes continued to strike targets in Gaza throughout the weekend and into Monday morning, as well as two airports in Syria and a mosque in the occupied West Bank that were allegedly used by militants.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said on Monday that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian enclave since Israel launched its devastating bombing campaign more than two weeks ago.
Concerns about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza have grown amid the war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, according to Israeli officials, in which more than 1,400 people were killed, shot, stabbed or killed by Islamist militants were burned. Hamas also took more than 200 hostages.
Thousands of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed and more than a million people displaced in the besieged area, which is largely lacking water, food and other basic supplies.
About a dozen trucks carrying urgently needed aid – the third convoy in three days – arrived in the Gaza Strip on Monday from Egypt through Rafah, Gaza’s only border crossing not controlled by Israel.
The United States, which brokered the aid convoys’ entry, has promised a “sustained flow” of aid to Gaza, even as U.N. aid agencies have said far more aid is needed.
Fighting raged unabated overnight after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed again that Israel would “wipe out Hamas” and as a full-scale ground invasion became apparent.
The Hamas-controlled government media office in the Gaza Strip said that “more than 60 people were martyred in the raids” that night – including 17 in a single attack that hit a house in northern Gaza – and that at least 10 more were killed new attacks early Monday.
The Israeli military said it had attacked “over 320 military targets in the Gaza Strip” in the past 24 hours.
The targets included “tunnels housing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational command centers” and “military compounds and observation posts” used by Islamic Jihad, another militant group.
Rafah resident Mohammed Abu Sabalah said he returned home from the local mosque after morning prayers on Monday and “fifteen minutes later there was a bomb attack.”
“We couldn’t see anything because of the thick smoke,” he said, adding, “We thank God that we came out safe and sound,” with “only a few windows and doors broken.”
Buildings are reduced to rubble and smoke fills the air in Gaza City, October 23, 2023
Members of the al-Zanati family, killed in an Israeli attack, are taken to a waiting vehicle and driven to a cemetery for burial in Khan Yunis
A view of the damage after Israeli airstrikes hit the Ridwan neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza, on October 23, 2023.
Palestinians search for survivors of the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Monday, Oct. 23, 2023
Israeli forces are massed near the Gaza border, and smaller units have already carried out limited incursions against Hamas in the hope of freeing hostages, the number of which Israel now puts at 222.
One such operation killed a 19-year-old Israeli soldier and injured three others, the army said, adding that the tank operation was aimed at “dismantling terror infrastructure… and locating missing people and bodies.”
In Gaza, where thousands were injured, the Health Ministry issued a statement saying: “Citizens are urged to immediately visit hospitals and blood banks to donate blood.”
Concern has grown over the urgent plight of the 2.4 million civilians trapped in the 40-kilometer coastal strip, which was already blockaded and impoverished before the war.
Children killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern town of Khan Yunis were buried in a makeshift grave on Monday, while men in Rafah filled plastic jerry cans from containers of now dangerously safe drinking water.
US President Joe Biden brokered the passage of aid convoys in talks with Egyptian and Israeli leaders last week – but the United Nations estimates Gaza needs about 100 trucks of aid each day.
U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said Sunday’s delivery of food, water and medical supplies was “another small glimmer of hope for the millions of people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.”
“But they need more, much more.”
Israel has refused to allow fuel into the Gaza Strip, fearing Hamas could use it for weapons and explosives.
This has led to warnings that ambulances, hospital incubators and water desalination plants will soon stop working in Gaza.