New GoPro footage shows Hamas terrorists infiltrating Israel unopposed on Oct. 7

Some 30 minutes of clips aired on Channel 12 reveal the ease with which Hamas’s elite Nukhba forces crossed 4 levels of defense at border without encountering any Israeli troops

By ToI Staff 9 January 2024, 11:29 am Edit
Footage from the GoPro camera of a Hamas terrorist, on October 7, 2023. (Screen capture/X used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)
Footage from the GoPro camera of a Hamas terrorist, on October 7, 2023. (Screen capture/X used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Hebrew media on Monday aired 30 minutes of new footage uncovered from the GoPro cameras of members of the Hamas terror group’s elite Nukhba force, showing the early hours of the terror group’s October 7 onslaught.

The footage shows how, in under 10 minutes, the Hamas terrorists managed to bust through the fences, barriers, and walls along the Gaza border and ride into Israel in pickup trucks, cars, and motorcycles to carry out mass murder on the other side of the border, completely unopposed by Israeli security forces.

The gunmen were on their way to perpetrate Hamas’s October 7 massacres, which saw an estimated 3,000 terrorists burst across the border by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing over 240 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — including babies, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 360 people were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many during or after horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists.

In a Monday night Channel 12 report, Zohar Dvir, the former head of the police’s elite Yamam counterterror unit, explained that by the time the swarms of Hamas terrorists approached the border with Israel on the morning of October 7, they knew that even if they were detected, the IDF would need time to mount a defense against such numbers.

The footage showed that it took the Nukhba troops just seven and a half minutes to cross all four levels of security at the border — a barbed wire fence, the old border fence, a dirt berm, and the highly touted “smart fence,” dubbed the Iron Wall. To cross, the Hamas fighters used explosives and iron culverts — brought specifically for this purpose — and ramps for vehicles to cross.

At no point during the crossing did they encounter any Israeli forces.

At the beginning of the newly aired footage, now-familiar scenes of hordes of terrorists could be seen heading toward the border with Israel, with visibly high morale and many crying out “Allahu Akhbar” (“God is greatest”).

One explanation for the palpable high spirits among the Hamas terrorists might be found in a small bag that appeared to be filled with white powder that Dvir pointed out in footage of Hamas commanders preparing for the attack in Gaza.

A Channel 12 reporter suggested it could be the drug known as Captagon, an amphetamine-type stimulant manufactured mostly in Lebanon and Syria that Israeli officials call the “Islamic State drug,” as jihadists supposedly used it to prevent fear and fatigue during fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Captagon pills have previously been seized en route to the Gaza Strip.

Footage broadcast by Channel 13 also shined a light on the noticeably calm preparations by terrorists at an undisclosed location in the Gaza Strip that took place earlier on the morning of the massacres. Piles of cellphones, communication devices, and computer equipment can be seen in the videos, and deliberations over denominations of cash to distribute to fighters can be heard.

Analyzing the footage aired on Channel 12 on Monday, Dvir pointed out that the two advantages that Hamas had in its deadly onslaught were masses of fighters, and the element of surprise. From a combat perspective, according to Dvir’s assessment, the terror organization’s so-called elite operatives had sloppy techniques — including no helmets, weapons held incorrectly, and faulty equipment.

And while some cells appeared to know the exact routes to their targets — Israeli communities and military bases along the Gaza border — others could be seen taking wrong turns, getting lost, and struggling to identify civilian areas.

Dvir said that when the terrorists actually came into contact with Israeli forces — including civilian standby units — “it broke the attack.”

Israel says it killed some 1,000 Hamas terrorists inside Israel on and after October 7. In response to the attacks, Israel vowed to destroy the terror group, and launched a wide-scale offensive in the Strip that has raged for three months.

The Israeli government and the IDF have said they will investigate all the failures that enabled the surprise attack after the war, although Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi last week announced the establishment of an internal operational probe of the October 7 failures to learn lessons for the ongoing conflict.

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