Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic descriptions.
CNN –
It begins that early Saturday morning, October 7, when Hamas fighters with AK-47s strapped to their chests crowd into the backs of white pickup trucks as the sun is still rising. In one scene, they grin and take a video of themselves as their truck speeds down the road on its way to slaughtering people who are still sleeping.
They set up checkpoints and shoot any car that approaches. They later pull out the bodies so they can steal the vehicles.
The scenes are unbearable to watch. The tape lasts over 40 minutes.
On Friday, CNN was part of a small group of journalists in the United States who were shown graphic video of the brutal October 7 Hamas attack. The Israel Defense Forces showed this raw footage — compiled from dashcam videos, body cameras, surveillance systems, video surveillance and the phones of dead Hamas fighters, all of which CNN cannot verify — to world leaders and U.S. lawmakers. On Friday, the video was shown outside Israel for the first time, although a CNN reporter had already seen a version shown to reporters in Israel.
Israeli officials said they would not release the video publicly out of respect for the victims.
Israel distilled and shared the footage in response to growing international criticism of its military campaign and blockade in Gaza, which have sparked a humanitarian crisis. The IDF’s apparent intention is to highlight the scale of the massacre and remind the world of the atrocities committed by Hamas, as the Israeli government tries to drum up support for its ground campaign in Gaza, which Israeli officials have warned it will will be lengthy and difficult.
As journalists viewed the illuminating images in a quiet room, the United Nations General Assembly – just a block away – passed a non-binding resolution calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire.” Hours later, Israel sent more troops into the Gaza Strip and increased its airstrikes.
In another scene in the video, two Hamas fighters enter a kibbutz. One shoots out the tires of an ambulance parked near the front, ensuring that the survivors cannot be brought to safety later. The militants then raid the houses and shoot people who are still in their beds or sitting on the porch. They even shoot the dogs that walk around the kibbutz. If they have a hard time getting into a house, they set it on fire instead.
Scenes include a Hamas fighter standing on top of a dead body and continuing to fire at the body at close range. They show Hamas members arguing over who gets to try to behead a Thai worker with a garden hoe, shouting “Allahu akbar” with each blow. They show militants setting cars on fire and then gathering for a selfie, smiling as if they were standing at a tailgate.
In Netiv HaAsara, a small town on the Gaza border, a man and his three sons are awakened by the attack, all still in their underwear. In home surveillance footage, the panicked father carries a child while the other two run through the living room behind him. They make it outside as he sprints into the house’s bomb shelter and throws his sons in first. Seconds later, two Hamas members threw a grenade into the entrance area, killing the father instantly. The two older boys, who are about 10 or 12 years old, come out covered in blood but alive. They go back to their living room.
“Dad is dead,” one says to the other. “It’s not a prank.”
“I know, I saw it,” said the other, leaning over the table, adding that after the grenade explosion he could only see with one eye.
“You’re not kidding?” his brother asks. “You can’t see?”
They are heartbroken – not that there is anyone there to comfort them. A Hamas fighter absentmindedly raids their refrigerator as they sob uncontrollably.
“Why am I alive? Why am I alive?” a boy cries.
When the boys’ mother later arrives with village security, she has to be dragged away from her husband’s body and brought to safety.
At the Panic breaks out at the Nova music festival, where at least 260 bodies were found, as revelers realize they are being attacked. The music is still playing as a person records a video with paragliders approaching in the background. Festival-goers quickly hide in dumpsters and behind trees, but nowhere is safe. As a Hamas fighter with a body camera walks past the portable toilets, he shoots at each one to make sure someone is inside.
Many people fled to nearby air raid shelters. In one video, a festival-goer’s eyes widen as he pans around to show a crowded bunker where the sobs and grief of his peers can be heard. Later you see the neatly lined up white body bags of the murdered.
In the three weeks since the attack, Israel has continually bombarded Gaza from the air. Israeli officials say the country is targeting Hamas militants and their strategic locations, which officials say are entrenched in the civilian population. Israel pushed part of its forces into the narrow strip of land on Friday evening as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the second phase of Israel’s campaign. The Israeli government rejected calls for a ceasefire despite other countries warning of a regional conflict and widespread concerns about civilians being unable to leave Gaza and lacking access to basic resources.
“There are innocent people in Gaza,” said retired IDF Major General Mickey Edelstein after the screening – underscoring the difference between civilians and Hamas. But Israeli officials made clear the next phase of the war will continue as Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, added: “There is no other way to defeat Hamas than a ground operation.”
On Saturday, an IDF spokesman again called on residents to leave the northern Gaza Strip.
“To the residents of the northern Gaza Strip and Gaza City: your window for action is closing. …Move south. This is not just a precautionary measure, it is an urgent appeal.”