Israel shows images of Hamas attacks to journalists to ‘combat misinformation’

O Consulate General of Israel in São Paulo presented this Wednesday, 1st, to a group of journalists, including the report from Estadãoa 44-minute long video with images of the terrorist attack in Hamas against in the south of the country on October 7th. The images were shown uncensored. These are explicit scenes of atrocities committed that day. Most of them were broadcast on social media by victims, Hamas itself and witnesses. Unreleased footage from security, traffic control and home cameras was also shown.

Presented at a time when the conflict between Israel and Hamas is being fought within the Gaza Strip, the images cause repulsion. Asked about the purpose of showing the images, Israel’s consul general in São Paulo, Rafael Erdreich, said that the video serves to combat misinformation and speeches that deny or minimize the scope of the attacks on the 7th.

According to Erdreich, the video was released at this time of the conflict because there is an increase in denialism, which, without his assessment, contributes to the increase in global anti-Semitism, including in Brazil. “Hamas is behind all the denialism that is happening. Therefore, seeing this video is important to show what happened,” he said. If we don’t report what happened, we can’t face this problem.”

On October 23, the same video shown in São Paulo was shown to journalists in New York. The images were also shown to the Israeli press.

The following report contains violent content

The images begin with Hamas gunmen shooting at cars and people in the open field as they invade Israel. In the images captured by security cameras, the date October 7th and the time appear. The attack began at around 7 am.

As the terrorists penetrate the kibbutz and reach an electronic music party near the border with the Gaza Strip, more people are murdered in the videos. Many are shot at point-blank range.

A closed-circuit camera captures a man and two boys dressed only in their underwear fleeing to a bomb shelter near their home as air raid warning sirens blare. As they enter the shelter, members of Hamas who were lying in wait appear and fire a grenade. The man appears dead.

In the next cut, the two boys appear desperate at home amid the attacks. They cry out for their mother. Everything is watched by an armed man who searches the house’s refrigerator.

The video also features recorded audio of a conversation between a Hamas member inside Israel and his parents in the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli government, the call was made from an Israeli victim’s cell phone and recorded by an application. “I killed ten Jews with my own hands!” shouts the man to his parents. The voice on the other end of the line sounds like crying and asks the man to return to the Gaza Strip. He doesn’t seem to listen, as he replays the killings he committed.

In other videos, the victims are seen gagged and tied with their hands behind their backs, terrorists appear celebrating the attack, bodies are taken into the Gaza Strip and received by a few dozen people with euphoria. Babies and children appear dead and charred and victims appear bloodied among piled corpses.

Since the attack on the 7th, Israel has declared war against Hamas and promised to exterminate the group. The offensive, according to Hamas officials in Gaza, left more than 8,000 people dead. The number is disputed by Israel. Confirmation by independent sources of what is happening in Gaza has become increasingly difficult since the start of the confrontation over the siege in the enclave.

The origins of the conflict date back a century and the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians has been at a standstill for more than 10 years. A United Nations (UN) calls for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” between Israeli forces and militants from Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and other militant groups in the region. “Civilians have borne the brunt of the current fighting from the beginning. The protection of civilians on both sides is paramount and must be respected at all times,” said the UN president, António Guterres.