MKs are shown raw videos of Hamas atrocities; some leave in tears
Compilation previously shown in closed-door screenings to foreign press, ambassadors to Israel; ‘Don’t hate each other, hate the enemy, hate the monsters,’ one lawmaker says
A compilation of raw footage documenting Hamas’s grisly October 7 rampage through the western Negev was screened Wednesday for Knesset members. The 43-minute-long video was produced by the IDF Spokesperson’s Office and shows uncensored, difficult-to-watch videos, many taken from terrorists’ bodycams.
After a request from Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana to the military, lawmakers were granted permission to hold a closed-door screening of the footage where recording and cellphones were not allowed.
Ohana, speaking before the screening, said that he had arranged the event so that Israeli lawmakers would “know who and what we are facing,” and so that “we will all know how much our path in this war against this evil is justified,” according to sources familiar with the event.
The speaker also said that the screening was part of an effort to fight against those who would deny the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7.
More than 50 MKs were in attendance, and some broke down in tears, including Ra’am head Mansour Abbas, the Maariv news outlet reported.
A video posted on Instagram by an I24 journalist showed an emotional scene of visibly distraught and crying lawmakers in the Knesset hallway outside the screening room.
“After five minutes, I ran from the hall, shaking and crying,” Likud MK Galit Distel Atbaryan wrote on X afterwards. She said she took a tranquilizer from the Knesset doctor waiting outside in the hall “without thinking twice.”
“Don’t hate each other… hate the enemy, hate the monsters,” she said. She continued by calling for an end to “internal squabbling” and for a “vengeful and cruel IDF” to “erase Gaza.”
Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak, also posting on X, said that he couldn’t talk about the content and just had one sentence to say: “Never forget, never forgive.”
“I saw everything to the end… It was important to look the monsters in the eye and see our dead. I left and told myself, we will win,” Yesh Atid MK Meirav Ben Ari wrote.
The footage was collected from call recordings, security cameras, Hamas terrorists’ body cameras, victims’ dashboard cameras, Hamas and victims’ social media accounts, and cellphone videos taken by terrorists, victims and first responders.
On October 7, Hamas terrorists breached the Israel-Gaza border in a well-coordinated, multi-pronged assault, running rampant for most of the day through kibbutzim and communities adjacent to the Gaza Strip. Over 1,400 people were slaughtered, more than 1,000 of them civilians massacred in their homes and at an outdoor music festival, and at least 240 people were abducted. The massacre started a war between Israel and Hamas.
The compilation, small parts of which have been released to the public, was shown Tuesday to a group of ambassadors to Israel and some of their diplomatic staff. Last week, the film was screened to about 200 members of the foreign press working in Israel.
Carrie Keller-Lynn contributed to this report.