A teddy bear is left on the ground near bloodstains where Israeli Defense Forces say two grandparents held a bomb shelter door closed to protect their grandchildren during an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on this kibbutz in Holit, Israel. All were injured, but survived. More than three weeks since Hamas' attacks in Israel, which killed 1,400 people according to Israeli authorities, just over half of the dead have been laid to rest, and more than four-fifths have been identified.
Eventually, they are seen running out of the house. The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that the boys survived. They are the lucky ones. On Friday afternoon, the IDF screened raw footage of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians, in which some 1,400 people were killed, for an audience of three journalists at a Jewish foundation office in Manhattan.
The montage opens with an explanation that what follows is raw footage collected from a variety of sources and documenting the deaths of at least 138 people, fewer than 10% of the Israelis killed on Oct. 7. The IDF said the montage represents a fraction of the material they have obtained, and that analysts are still combing through all of it. Before any images appeared on the screen, we heard a low droning sound. I thought for a moment it was some kind of ominous soundtrack. It was an engine.
Hamas fighters find the man and his friends, and drag at least three of them into the back of a pickup truck. One of the Israelis is holding aloft what remains of his mangled arm, perhaps hoping gravity will keep him from bleeding out. Later footage shows the body of another concertgoer, a tall man with dreadlocks, stripped to his underwear, facedown in the bed of a pickup. Two fighters are sitting on the body.
Clips of intercepted audio, aired on black screens with subtitles, offer little reprieve from the grisly violence. On the phone with his commander, a fighter says he is cutting off the heads of victims with a knife. His commander reminds him to photograph the decapitated heads.