The Hamas prisoner speaks calmly and clearly. His commanders, he says, ordered their fighters to “behead” women, children and the elderly.
They were like “animals” and instructed intruders to abuse their bodies after murdering women, he says.
Even after two weeks of relentlessly disgusting stories that have emerged since the October 7 atrocity, these are cruel and inflammatory claims, and they come amid a huge backlash against claims that Hamas beheaded victims.
If what this man says is true, Hamas commanders specifically called for beheadings as the killers prepared to attack Israeli villages.
The man, we are told, is a Hamas prisoner and the Israeli military has released a video showing parts of his interrogations.
The Hamas prisoner (pictured) speaks calmly and clearly. His commanders, he says, ordered their fighters to “behead” women, children and the elderly.
It is impossible to verify the circumstances of the video or the identity of the man filmed. I checked it several times after it was handed over to me by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Mail commissioned its own translation of the words he speaks in Arabic.
According to the IDF, the prisoner, wearing a white cloth jumpsuit and sitting opposite an Israeli interrogator, is a 24-year-old member of the Hamas terror unit that stormed Israeli villages on October 7. He was an “engineer and…”soldier” in Hamas’s “ground forces.”
The mission was to kill. Women, children, everyone
Unlike other fanatics who died as self-deluded “martyrs” when shot by Israeli security forces, it appears that he either allowed himself to be captured or was incompetent in his escape.
The IDF told me that he was from Hamas’s Zaiton Battalion and was captured on the day of the massacres at the gates of the Alumim kibbutz, near the Gaza border.
In the video, the young man speaks in a matter-of-fact voice, neither raised nor whispered, answering questions posed to him by his invisible interrogators in a room with wooden cabinets.
When asked about his mission, he replies, “Kill. Women, children, anyone, anyone who was in the house.”
Even after two weeks of relentlessly disgusting stories that have emerged since the October 7 atrocity, these are cruel and inflammatory claims, and they come amid a huge backlash against claims that Hamas beheaded victims (pictured: Israeli soldiers carrying one Coffin).
If true, this is the first indication that Hamas terrorists have actively attempted to behead victims (pictured: Israeli victims being buried).
He says that in Gaza he was taught to respect women and children in mosques, but in the Hamas “army” it was “different.”
“In the army we are asked to kill and massacre them everywhere,” he says. “Women and children and so on.” The religion says it is forbidden to kill children, women and the elderly. In the army the commander will tell you: Kick them on the head, behead them and do whatever you want with them.’
ISIS burns, beheads; Hamas became ISIS
If true, it is the first indication that Hamas terrorists actively attempted to behead victims. It was suspected that the headless bodies found by rescue workers were decapitated by the grenades hurled into houses by terrorists and were not intentionally decapitated.
It is therefore obvious why the Israeli military wants the startling claims made in this video to be made public on the important information battlefield.
Likewise, there is no doubt that Israel’s enemies will say that the video is just propaganda.
There is more. The interrogator asks the man about the comparison Israel makes between Hamas and the terrorist group Islamic State.
Pictured: a damaged building in Kibbutz Be’eri after the Hamas attack on October 7th
Pictured: Hamas gunmen enter Kibbutz Be’eri, where more than 100 people were killed
The prisoner appears to agree, saying: “ISIS burns, beheads and slaughters… Hamas became ISIS.”
He says Hamas commanders sent fighters on suicide missions and told them: “You will go in and you will not come back.” He says they have become “inhuman” and “animals,” adding: “They are things that a human being “Don’t do it.” Behead people. Having sex with corpses – that is, with the body of a dead young woman.”
“Such things happened?” asks the Inquisitor.
“Yes,” he says and nods.
The prisoner’s face is obscured. It is not known why he seems to speak so freely. He certainly seems willing to talk. However, it is impossible to be sure of the circumstances. He was held captive by Israel and does not have a lawyer with him.
The three-minute video is just a fraction of what must have been a long interview, and we only received a compilation of select clips.
An IDF spokesman told me the man was arrested with a “functional phone” that contained only five contacts, a navigation app and the messaging app Telegram.
The phone allegedly contained videos of the murder of victims by Hamas terrorists, which were livestreamed from other villages.
The whereabouts of the man in this video are unknown. The IDF says only that he is being held in a secure facility in Israel and is being interrogated by IDF interrogators.
The Geneva Convention states that governments must protect prisoners of war from “insults and public curiosity,” including videos of interrogations. Israel insists that Hamas terrorists are not prisoners of war and that the Geneva Convention does not apply.
On the morning of October 7th there was no war, there was a terrible terrorist attack, they said. And while Israel’s prime minister later declared that his country was “at war”, at the time of the attack most of the perpetrators were either shot or imprisoned, with detainees subjected to interviews to find out what they know.
On the morning of October 7th there was no war, there was a terrible terrorist attack, they said
And while Israel’s prime minister (pictured during a meeting with US President Joe Biden) later declared that his country was “at war”, at the time of the attack most of the perpetrators were either shot or imprisoned, and detainees were subjected to violence Interviews to find out what they know
Israel is still trying to free more than 200 hostages kidnapped by Hamas and taken to Gaza, and any snippet of information could provide a crucial clue to their whereabouts.
If Israel is criticized for releasing a prisoner video, it should be said that several of the hostages have already been paraded on video by Hamas, some looking terrified.
Noa Argamani, 26, who was kidnapped at the Supernova desert party, was filmed on a motorbike behind her Hamas captor, begging for her life and screaming: “Don’t kill me!” French-Israeli Mia Schem, 21, was shown on video in Hamas detention with “fear on her face,” her distraught family said.
And a defenseless 85-year-old grandmother, Yaffa Adar, was filmed being driven into the Palestinian enclave in a golf buggy. While the claims in the prisoner’s video cannot be directly verified, numerous reports emerged after the massacres of dead women being stripped naked and showing signs of possible sexual abuse.
And confirmation that victims were found without heads comes from numerous sources, including Israel’s most senior pathologists tasked with identifying the victims.
Yesterday, Israeli authorities struck back in dramatic fashion against doubters who spread theories reminiscent of “Holocaust denial.” To counter the skeptics who complain about “fake news,” they staged what is probably the most macabre cinematic event in history.
Only journalists were allowed to attend the 45-minute screening of unedited footage collected from Hamas death squad headcams and smartphones. Many cried at the screening at a military complex in Tel Aviv.
The footage included graphic footage of civilians being shot, stabbed, tortured and burned. Bodies were arranged for all to see – bound, gagged and riddled with bullet holes.
In one clip, a Hamas terrorist throws a grenade at a father and his son. The explosion kills the father, who throws himself forward onto the lawn while the boy is covered in blood.
The child is dragged inside and forced to sit next to his brother, whose eyes are covered in blood after the horrific torture. One of the boys sobs, “Why am I alive?” as the ruthless terrorists stand over his father’s body.
A phenomenon similar to Holocaust denial
Another grim portion of the footage showed the headless corpses of IDF soldiers lying sprawled on the street. Introducing the grim display, government spokesman Eylon Levy said: “The IDF has collected body camera footage captured by Hamas death squads as they rampaged through southern communities.” Israel slaughters everyone in sight.
“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 Hamas has committed against our people have committed, and recorded to glorify this violence.’
On Sunday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that manuals seized from the bodies of Hamas killers contained instructions for making chemical weapons. He said it was “official al-Qaeda material” showing how to make a weapon using cyanide.