Gaza Genocide: Who Ordered the Water Wells Blown Up?

August 4, 2024

An "Un-Approved" Campaign of Well Destruction?

Let's start with the video we weren't supposed to see. Luckily, Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi caught it on Instagram before it was deleted, and made sure his copy was available to the public. Tirwai reported on Dropsite News, July 28 (with reporting by Ryan Grim and Hind Khoudary).

On Friday, I discovered a video posted on Instagram by an Israeli soldier from the 601st Combat Engineering Battalion, showing the calculated demolition of a chief water facility in Rafah. The video, in three parts, shows Israeli soldiers planting explosives inside and around the water pumps of a facility in the occupied city. The video—which is captioned in Hebrew, “Destruction of the Tal Sultan water reservoir in honor of Shabbat”—ends with footage of the water facility being blown up. The soundtrack is a song produced by soldiers of the 51st Golani Brigade with lyrics like, “We will burn Gaza… shake all of Gaza… for every house you destroy we will destroy ten.”

Tirawi's posting of the video on X: https://x.com/ytirawi/status/1816965332952555683

Assuming the event was new, it would be on Shabbat (Saturday), July 27th, perhaps in the pre-dawn hours, but depending on time zones and posting data, it might appear on Friday for some people. Otherwise, it might be a week-old video. Below are two screenshots from the video: soldiers wiring the place, then its detonation. The blast center is not at the main tank, but an attached building and connecting pipes probably crucial to its operation. The water supply in the tank, if any, may have survived. I couldn't say just what capabilities were actually taken out here.

Built in 1999 with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency, the Tel Sultan water station was also dubbed the "Canada Well." I'll mainly call it that here. It was equipped with a large array of solar panels to power the plant even when electricity is scarce or cut-off by Israel. Citing Gaza’s coastal municipalities water utility, Tirawi writes "the Canada well is the main water facility in the city of Rafah and provides services to 50 percent of the city’s residents, mainly in West Rafah." In one blow, these soldiers may have taken out half of Rafah's water supply. 

Tirawi notes Rachel Corrie, the activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003, "spent much of her time during the last month of her life helping to protect the municipality workers at the Canada Well" as they repaired damage caused by the bulldozers. In the current war, Tirawi reports, some employees and their family had sheltered in the protected plant until it "was struck without warning, resulting in the deaths of four of its employees’ relatives." In the destruction video, there are no longer any of the old solar panels, and in the close-up views, the place is clearly damaged by at least one previous attack. 

Tirawi writes that "Our exposure of the video on Friday immediately sparked outrage, with some describing it as evidence of war crimes." The soldier who posted the video on Instagram "quickly made his account private and deleted the stories." 

The soldier - Ido Levi - has previously posted videos of him helping destroy a school, a mosque and many homes, attaching genocidal comments to Gazans like "until nothing remains of you." (previous thread by Tirawi on X) So he doesn't seem to be a conscientious whistleblower showing us this. But this is the first time Levi was embarrassed enough to finally make his account private. Apparently, the destruction of the Canada Well was a special crime.

In a next-day update, it was added: "The IDF has not yet provided a comment, but, according to Haaretz, army sources said senior commanders did not approve the destruction of the facility. The military, Haaretz reported, is conducting an initial probe, after which it will determine whether to open an investigation." What, they jump right to pre-investigation initial probe without a pre-probe preliminary survey? This sounds like it's a very serious affair.

They say this was a field decision, if I follow correctly, approved by the 601st Battalion commanders, but allegedly without orders from higher up. But reports soon emerged of "more than 30" water wells in Khan Younis and Rafah, including this one, destroyed by Israeli forces within a ten-day span. Were these all un-approved actions?

"Destruction of Gaza water wells deepens Palestinian misery" by Hatem Khaled, Reuters, July 30

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/destruction-gaza-water-wells-deepens-palestinian-misery-2024-07-30/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter

https://x.com/Reuters/status/1818460331275956514

GAZA (Reuters) -Israel's military blew up more than 30 water wells in Gaza this month, a municipality official and residents said, adding to the trauma of airstrikes that have turned much of the Palestinian enclave into a wasteland ravaged by a humanitarian crisis.

Salama Shurab, head of the water networks at Khan Younis municipality, said the wells were destroyed by Israeli forces between July 18-27 in the southern towns of Rafah and Khan Younis.

The report adds: "The Israeli military did not respond to the allegations that its soldiers destroyed the wells." The closest they came was a word from "COGAT, the branch of the Israeli military that manages humanitarian activities," who said they stood ready to repair anything damaged, noting that Hamas and other militants "have been known to attack civilian infrastructures and humanitarian aid routes," complicating COGAT's needed help, and perhaps explaining any wells that were recently damaged. 

The article didn't mention the Tel Sultan station, perhaps being written before that news broke. But it is illustrated with a satellite image, obtained last-minute on July 30, of "the Canada Well water facility in Tel al-Sultan, Rafah, before the site was damaged in an Israeli Army explosion." (image at right)

If it's true that 30+ wells were destroyed between July 18 and 27, that makes at least 3 per day on average. That should be more abnormal. An Oxfam International report published July 17 had found "Israel damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation sites every three days since the start of this war," or 1.67 per day. So the July bombings would roughly double the usual rate. That's not the clearest indicator of a specific campaign, but it seemed to local authorities like a noteworthy uptick, and this near-doubling came atop all the previous damage, amid worsening summer heat, and (as discussed below) just after polio was discovered in Gaza's wastewater. 

And it was just then they upped the scale to that blast damaging the huge and crucial Canada Well. The video of that was apparently filmed Saturday, July 27, the last day of attacks mentioned in the interview, which was perhaps done as early as the 27th itself. So the attacks might have continued past then, or been meant to. But this likely wound up the capstone of the campaign, and it might have been planned that way, with the biggest blow delivered on the last day by design. 

You wouldn't think this could happen so totally just then without central orders. But I'll suggest it's entirely possible and likely enough. Orders this super-criminal would rather go unspoken, and the motive that would drive such a crime is widely understood and agreed, so that if commanders are given extra latitude to make their own calls, along with subtle hints of what calls to make, many terrible things could "just sort-of happen." This might be a sort of decentralized or "crowdsourced" genocide where the exact blame may be hard to place. 

But central orders or no, I don't see any honest, legitimate, non-genocidal reason to destroy so many water wells. They were openly or tacitly approved, judging by their happening, and the silence that prevailed right up until the video proof was posted. The video publication was probably the only part they didn't approve, and now some staged concern is required. But either way, these remain acts of the state, with responsibility ultimately running to the top. 

Water War Crimes and Germ Warfare Wishes

This destruction would well serve a genocidal agenda repeatedly championed by Israeli leaders close to the war cabinet. Perhaps foremost among these is retired Major General Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel’s National Security Council and an adviser to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. As Younis Tirawi's report noted: "In October... Eiland, laid out the strategy to deprive Palestinians not just of water from outside Gaza, but to disrupt their ability to pump and purify water locally, on the IDF’s radio station, GLZ. ... said Eiland in a Hebrew-language interview. 

“Israel, as I understand, closed the water supply to Gaza ... But there are many wells in Gaza, which contain water which they treat locally, since originally they contain salt. If the energy shortage in Gaza makes it so that they stop pumping out water, that's good. Otherwise we have to attack these water treatment plants in order to create a situation of thirst and hunger in Gaza, and I would say, forewarn of an unprecedented economical and humanitarian crisis.”

The interviewer pushed back. “Giora, I want to check that I understand correctly. You are saying—get the residents of Gaza into thirst, into hunger. These are the terms you are using?”

“You understood correctly,” he said. “If you want to topple the Hamas regime, you won't achieve that merely through aerial attacks. And a ground invasion, it has its benefits, [but] it also comes with great risks, and it's unclear that the state of Israel needs to take these right now.” 

interview: https://api.bynetcdn.com/Redirector/glz/231010-10/PD?awCollectionId=2134&awEpisodeId=231010-10 - video w/original audio and subtitles: https://x.com/loffredojeremy/status/1819436235875664171

Eiland is correct to point out it would cost less soldiers to just sit back and let hunger, thirst, and maybe disease kill Hamas, along with whoever else, but especially children. That could possibly have prevented a ground invasion, but as it happens, the IDF moved in before Eiland spoke again, in an opinion article of 21 November, urging disease be used in particular, to help limit Israeli losses. 

Middle East Eye: “The international community warns us of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza and of severe epidemics,” retired Major General Giora Eiland, the former head of Israel’s National Security Council, wrote Sunday. “We must not shy away from this, as difficult as that may be. After all, severe epidemics in the south of the Gaza Strip will bring victory closer and reduce casualties among IDF soldiers.”

"Eiland went on to say that the Israeli government must take a “harder line” against the US and rule out discussions about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza until all the hostages held in the besieged enclave are released. The opinion article elicited an endorsement from far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said, “I agree with every word.” " 

Smotrich has repeatedly called for the "voluntary emigration" of surviving Palestinians out of Gaza and its being annexed and settled by Israelis. Justice Minister Itamar Ben Gvir agrees, specifying "hundreds of thousands" of Gazans need to leave, if not all of them. (Times of Israel) And Ben Gvir, of course, agrees with Smotrich on denial of water and/or embrace of germ warfare against the civilian population he wants gone. During a televised discussion in November, Ben Gvir insisted no fuel could be allowed into Gaza, because "we know exactly where it goes," which is to Hamas. Another guest pointed out it's also needed to pump and purify water, which was no longer possible. He asked the minister "You don't want the people in Gaza to have water?" Pretending that lice are the worst problem people face from a lack of water, Ben Gvir declared that, yes ... until the Israeli hostages were released (and Hamas surrendered, etc.), the hostages and everyone else in Gaza should go thirsty; "let there be lice to itch them," he said.  (Middle East Eye on X)

This is not officially Israeli policy, but it doesn't need to be. It's happening anyway, through Israel's actions, shutting off water supplies they controlled and bombing others, gradually eroding Gaza's limited capabilities until, on May 8, the BBC reported "Half of Gaza water sites damaged or destroyed." On June 22, it was reported that five Gaza city workers "were killed by a targeted Israeli airstrike yesterday as they prepared to fix a well and help restore access to freshwater to the local population." (X) On July 17, Oxfam released a report on "Water War Crimes," finding that Israel was "using water as weapon of war," having damaged or destroyed 88% of Gaza's water wells and 100% of its desalination plants. (Israel using water as weapon of war as Gaza supply plummets by 94%, creating deadly health catastrophe: Oxfam  | Oxfam International) 

To be sure, Gaza's water problems predate the war. As far back as 2012, Save the Children and Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) found nearly all of the water in Gaza is polluted and "unfit for drinking," as Commondreams reported. "In five to ten years, Gaza's depleted aquifer, the sole water source, will stop producing water suitable for human consumption." That would be 2022, at the latest. 

It's also alleged that Hamas worsened the problem by digging up functional water pipes to make rockets from, as "Imam of Peace" alleges, citing a Hamas propaganda video: "They’re proud of keeping Palestinians thirsty," he said. But this looks like a barren area near the shore, likely the former Jewish settlement of Gush Khatif. The pipes there would be disconnected, irrelevant, and most likely last used by settlers to help draw down Gaza's water table before they left in 2005. Reports from 2021 said Hamas weapon-makers "repurpose plumbing pipes scavenged from abandoned Israeli settlements and components culled from dud Israeli bombs." In 2020, an Al-Jazeera documentary showed a very similar dig, explaining how the pipes had allowed "Israeli theft of Palestinian water." They're returning property here, not depriving Gazans. That remains Israel's job, self-appointed. 

As the current conflict grinds on, UNICEF's James Elder said on UN TV, July 30 that "average water availability has fallen to between two and nine litres per person, per day" whereas 15 liters for all uses is the WHO-recommended minimum in an emergency, while 3 liters just to drink is "the bare minimum for survival." It's already lower than this in some cases. Reports and images increasingly show children suffering malnutrition and dehydration, sometimes fatal, along with widespread skin diseases, kidney infections, and more. 

By July 19 it was reported that Polio was detected in Gaza's untreated wastewater, which has been widely contaminating other water sources. This means there are active infections, raising serious concerns of a major outbreak of this crippling and often deadly disease, while immunization is lower than it should be, due to the blockade and the war (CNN). This, or any of the other diseases increasing their profile in the hazardous conditions, will cause more than some "itching" and could fulfill Eiland's prophecy and bring Israel's "victory" closer to reality. And it was just then - July 18 - that this accelerated campaign of well-destructions began.

What if Netanyahu Knew?

Amid these events, on July 24, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the US and lectured Congress (or the 3/4 willing to show up) how "we're protecting you" with their actions in Gaza. Five days after Polio was detected, and in the middle of the well-destruction campaign pursuant to that, he would say, among other things:

"Antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred. For centuries, the massacre of Jews was always preceded by wild accusations. We were accused of everything from poisoning wells to spreading plagues to using the blood of slaughtered children to bake Passover matzos. These preposterous antisemitic lies led to persecution, mass murder and ultimately to history’s worst genocide, the Holocaust."

He continued: "Now, just as malicious lies were levelled for centuries at the Jewish people, malicious lies are now being levelled at the Jewish state." And they might even be of a similar character. Was he anticipating claims that Israel was deliberately poisoning the water or, let's say, systematically destroying water wells, branding it an Antisemitic lie in advance? Congressional leaders surely stand by to make that a law. 

He cites the ancient blood libel, an obvious lie originally used by ancient Romans against early Christians, until they Christianized and, as Catholics, shifted the claim onto the Jews. But he cites this alongside two possibly relevant charges - spreading disease and poisoning water - that have emerged in both ancient and modern times. Egyptian authorities alleged both of these together in 1948, when they arrested Israeli soldiers dressed as Arabs, they say, and carrying typhoid germs near a water well in Gaza, apparently planning to poison it. Israel denied the charges, Egypt executed the soldiers anyway, and then in 2022, Israeli historians Benny Morris and Benjamin Z. Kedar found evidence Egypt was right - official documentation of an operation called ‘Cast Thy Bread.’ Bigger operations inside Egypt and Lebanon were planned but called off, while mass poisoning was carried out, mainly in Palestinian areas that had been vacated. It seems the plan was more to prevent their return than to kill the residents, but Morris and Kedar found dysentery and typhoid did wind up spreading at least in the targeted city of Acre. (Haaretz article - Promised Land Museum document - Asharq al-Awsat article)

So Netanyahu lumps in these "antisemitic lies" about water and germ warfare once directed at the Jewish people, that wind up true, at least now that the Jews also have a state. He did this just as Israel was in fact helping the spread of disease in Gaza, largely with water effectively poisoned by their actions. It could still be debated whether they do this intentionally, but when they exacerbate the problem by deliberately destroying existing supplies of relatively pure water, as they were also doing just then, the case gets harder to make.

Commanders of the 601st Engineering Battalion supposedly blew the Canada Well on their own initiative, and not on Netanyahu's orders or with his awareness. So far there's no word on who decided to do the same dozens of times over in just ten days. We surely weren't supposed to see that one video, and we still don't have video proof for any of the others. So we can surmise the operation was all meant to go unseen. 

But the destruction and its devastating implications would become known. So, unless they wanted to take credit for another blatant act of genocide, Israel would need an alternate story. Perhaps Netanyahu was preparing the way for that as well, by citing those past slurs. Maybe the plan was to claim the Palestinians destroyed their own water supply over "Antisemitic fears" that Israel had poisoned the water to deliberately spread disease and, as Giora Eiland put it, bring victory closer. As it so often turns out, the Palestinians "did it to themselves."

This is a rather speculative thought, but it seemed worth airing. A decentralized or "crowdsourced" genocide, as I'm now considering, with top-level awareness and advance propaganda cover by the prime minister - that's may be hard or even impossible to prove, but if true, as I half-suspect, it's one of the evilest things ever, and surely fit for a War Crimes tribunal. What do you think? 

Israel "Bringing Home" its Hostages - in Caskets

January 29, 2024

Adds on 2/3, Big adds Feb. 11-13

The Israeli Defense Forces continues its massive violence in Gaza aimed at eradicating Hamas and finding the remaining Israeli hostages to "bring them all home." Going on four months in, they claim one successful rescue. 

Private Ori Megidish, a lookout soldier from Nahal Oz Base, was reportedly rescued on early in the offensive, on October 30. It wasn't clear if she was actually rescued or willingly released. An initial IDF statement said Megidish was “released,” but that was a "translation error," they said - she was “actively rescued." (CNN) Israeli MFA spokesperson Yaari Cohen later said the supposed rescue provided "hope to millions of Israelis that more hostages can be released." 

Four days before that rescue, on October 26, Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades announced that Israel had killed “almost 50 captives” in missile and air strikes. (The Gray Zone) This has never been proven, confirmed, or agreed, but it might well be true - Israel got a solid start to "freeing" the hostages by killing some 20% of them in the first weeks. Other cases we'll consider below all postdate this possible total and would add to it. 

Interestingly, pvt. Megidish was missing from initial listings of those kidnapped, according to some observers, until she was added on the day of her rescue. (Hala Jaber). An oddity: a terrorist computer found in al-Shifa hospital had a public photo of pvt. Megidish as its wallpaper. "Why would this PC only contain one picture of a “single rescued Israeli soldier” which was earlier captured and brought to Gaza." https://twitter.com/ytirawi/status/1724881517082525860 Maybe she was never captured, and the photo was brought in to make some kind of case for that? I'm still not sure what to make of that or what it was even meant to signify, but it seems like a strange coincidence.

The Megidish case might have given people hope, but if that didn't fall flat from the strange details, it would be deflated after the following weeks of Israel's brutal destruction of the same Gaza the hostages were sheltered in. Aside from the one case, they've apparently rescued no hostages, but it seems they've killed quite a few. 

Some 240+ hostages were originally tallied. Some 109 were released by Hamas before December 16, when CNN reported "132 captives were believed to still in Gaza, of whom 112 were thought to still be alive." But since then, the IDF had accidentally killed three, so it was 129 held, 109 of them alive =  20 dead. (CNN) January 15, Times of Israel: "It is believed that 132 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November. Four hostages were released prior to that, and one was rescued by troops. The bodies of eight hostages have also been recovered and three hostages were mistakenly killed by the military. The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed the deaths of 25 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza."

Tallies will vary a bit with small details I don't know, but let's compare mid-December and mid-January. 132-25=107 still alive - just 2 less than a month earlier (109 on Dec. 16). 25 dead vs. 20 = up five. Below, I count six hostages likely killed by the IDF in that span. They may be responsible for all the added deaths.

The website https://oct7map.com/ currently lists 112 hostages released alive by Hamas - mainly during grudgingly-agreed cease-fires - and 138 still held, assumed alive or not confirmed as dead. The site lists at least 24 hostages specified as "Murdered in Captivity." We'll exclude one (Ilan Weiss) who was assumed kidnapped then reported dead, but he was actually found at his home, killed on October 7. That leaves 23. With the others listed, that gives a suggested total of at least 274 original hostages - more than the 240 or so first reported.

Of these 23, half of them - 11 - were likely killed in known IDF actions, with reasons to suspect that already published. The deadly actions include at least 2 airstrikes, a botched rescue effort, a tunnel attack on Hamas leaders (perhaps with toxic gas), and hostages directly surrendering to the IDF who were shot dead instead of taken home.

One hostage - Guy Illouz - was noted as killed by medical neglect (and with sanctions, etc. that might be partly the IDF's fault). note 2/3: Judith/Yehudit Weiss also "was a cancer patient, and after her abduction, her family expressed concern for her health, assuming she would not receive the necessary medical treatment while in captivity."  And then she might die, or be "murdered," as listed.  https://nachamuami.com/fallen/yehudit-weiss/ 

The other half -  also 11 - are unclear. Some were elderly and likely died from other medical issues, including limitations imposed on all Humans currently stuck in Gaza. The rest, like the other 11, are listed and/or reported as killed by Hamas, but may have been killed in other IDF strikes - no details were given in most cases. As far as I see, there are no proven Hamas executions among the 23. 

Add 2/3: Soldier Naama Levy has not been "murdered" that we know of, but she may have been seen lightly injured after an Israeli attack in late November. https://twitter.com/MatamalasJ/status/1736431066188013571

If, as al-Qassam claimed, "almost 50" hostages - say ~47 - were killed in IDF attacks by late October, this 11 would make for at least ~58 killed in IDF actions or otherwise following in the assault and sanctions. The other 11 could make for ~69 - with perhaps others unreported or lost in the shuffle. Just 106 or so are thought to remain alive, and that's probably high. And again, none of them have been rescued aside from the one dubious case. 

As Udi Goren, whose cousin was killed by Hamas, told CNN “The ground invasion" - all the killing in the name of rescuing the hostages - "is killing the hostages.” (CNN) So far, at the immense cost to Gazan civilians and some IDF troops, the hostages only come home in caskets. 

But in a related development, Gaza is getting quite flat and unlivable, as have the bodies of some 20-30,000 Gazans. Considering that and all the other pros and cons, it seems worth continuing the war - likely through all of 2024 (BBC). Maybe after another 10,000 children are killed the hostages can all brought home, and perhaps a handful of them can even come home alive. But even if none of them does, maybe 100,000 will be killed in Gaza, and the rest may all have to "voluntarily" relocate in order to survive, so to some minds it will seem well worth the effort.

23 Total "Murdered in Captivity"

name - location - notes ("murdered" = no further details I know of)

1 Inbar Haiman - Music Festival - "murdered"

2 Guy Illouz - Music Festival - "murdered due to intentional prevention of proper medical care"

3 Elia Toledano - Music Festival - "murdered"  likely in 12/14 IDF tunnel attack

4 Yossi Sharabi - Be'eri - "murdered" after IDF strike in mid-January

5 Yonatan Samerano - Be'eri - "murdered"

6 Itay Svirski - Be'eri - "murdered" after IDF strike in mid-January

7 Sahar Baruch - Be'eri - "murdered" during IDF rescue effort Dec 8

8 Ofra Kedar - Be'eri - "murdered"

9 Judith Weiss - Be'eri - "murdered" - cancer patient - found near Shifa hospital when Cpl. Marciano was found, spurring Israel's mass-removal of bodies 

10 Eitan Levy - Be'eri - "murdered" after IDF strike in mid-January 

11 Alon Lulu Shamriz - Kfar Aza - "murdered" accidentally by IDF after escaping captivity, 12/15

12 Yotam Haim - Kfar Aza - "murdered" accidentally by IDF after escaping captivity, 12/15

13 Ronen Engel - Nir Oz - "murdered"

14 Eliyahu Margalit - Nir Oz - "murdered"

15 Gadi Haggai - Nir Oz - "murdered"

16 Maya Goren - Nir Oz - "murdered"

17 Judy W'stein Haggai Nir Oz - "murdered"

18 Arye Zalmanovich - Nir Oz - "murdered"

19 Cpl. Noa Marciano - Nahal Oz base - "murdered" at Shifa hospital "quickly" after injury in IDF strike, 11/9 - body found near hosp. when Judith Weiss was found

20 Joshua Mollel - Nahal Oz - "murdered"

21 Samar Fouad Talalka - Nir Am - "murdered" accidentally by IDF after escaping captivity, 12/15

22 Ron Scherman - COGAT Base - "murdered"  likely in 12/14 IDF tunnel attack

23 Nik Beizer - COGAT Base - "murdered" likely in 12/14 IDF tunnel attack

In a picture:

Sources (by incident date):

November 9 strike on Noa Marciano's captor but not on her - 11/17: Body of second Israeli hostage found near Shifa Hospital in Gaza: IDF | National Post "On Monday night, Hamas released a video of Marciano that the Israel Defense Forces described as “psychological terror.” The video claimed that Marciano was killed in an airstrike in Gaza." 

https://twitter.com/IDF/status/1726368486027403419

"On November 9, CPL Noa Marciano was injured from an IAF strike and the terrorist holding her hostage was neutralized. Following a preliminary pathological report, it was revealed that Noa’s injury was not life-threatening." These injuries are not described. Then, they say, "Noa was murdered by a Hamas terrorist in the Shifa Hospital." because it's absurd to think the same IDF strike that killed her captor could also kill her. And they took her to the hospital - that's a dead giveaway that they planned to murder her. 

The fatal injuries, added to the unclear injuries from the strike, were described (1st source): “After analyzing the footage, experts suggest that her injuries do not align with those typically sustained in airstrikes,” the IDF said in a statement. “The observed wounds appear more consistent with bullet injuries, and there is also an indication that she may have suffered from injuries related to a fall from a height.” So she was quickly shot all over and dropped from a height once they had her in the hospital? That's not the most likely, but it's implied these injuries appeared AFTER the airstrike injuries, which they don't describe - since they don't seem to be from an airstrike. That should be all you need to know to understand these were later, execution-related injuries. Why did they need to consider if they were from some other airstrike? Or are they talking about the same injuries allegedly from their own attack? Did she suffer those supposedly atypical injuries in their strike, and are those - as far as they know - the same injuries she died from? If so, why does their being atypical matter? In other words, they seem to be dissembling badly.

IDF rescue effort Dec 8: Sahar Baruch from Be'eri was killed. A botched hostage rescue was reported Dec. 8 - 2 soldiers were badly wounded and, sadly, no hostages rescued - but some kidnappers were killed, and definitely no hostages were killed (the possibility wasn't even mentioned). (Times of Israel)

Later: Jan. 3 Hostage Sahar Baruch killed during rescue attempt a month ago, IDF says | The Times of Israel "The IDF has notified the family of hostage Sahar Baruch that he was killed during a failed attempt to rescue him from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip on December 8. The military says it is unable to determine the cause of death at this stage, and it is unknown if Baruch was murdered by Hamas or killed by Israeli fire. Hamas at the time claimed that Baruch was killed by the IDF, publishing footage of his body." Hamas executed him during the IDF effort to free him. If only the IDF had gotten there sooner ... Or was that not a coincidence? Did the attack provoked Hamas to kill him, or ... he was one of the "kidnappers" initially reported killed? 

Aviva Klompas on X 12/8: "The video released today ends by showing his tortured and mutilated body. Rather than screaming for the release of the hostages who are enduring untold evils, the world wants Israel to retreat. There can be no ceasefire until all the hostages are released and the Hamas war machine is destroyed." The IDF needs to go in there, guns blazing, or else these murders will never be stopped. Could he not see the possible connection to the day's failed raid and think to temper such comments? Most likely she could see that and was operating from an aggressive defiance of reality, fully expecting to win over reality in the end.

December 14 tunnel attack: Jan. 17, Jerusalem Post via MSN: "The IDF could not confirm the cause of death of killed Gaza hostages Ron Sherman and Nick Beiser, the military confirmed in a Wednesday statement. Their bodies were retrieved from a Hamas tunnel by the IDF in Jabalya on December 14, 2023, together with the body of Elia Toledano. ... Close to where the bodies were found, the IDF attacked a tunnel in which the commander of the northern division of Gaza, Ahmad Al Ghandour, was killed. The investigation shows that at the time of the attack, the IDF did not know about the presence of hostages in the area. Also, the forces who found their bodies during searches in the tunnel did not have prior intelligence about their presence." 

"Ron Sherman’s mother, Maya, published a post yesterday in which she accused the IDF of mistakingly [sic] killing her son. “The results of the investigation: Ron was indeed murdered,” she wrote. “Not by Hamas. Think more in the direction of Auschwitz and the showers but without Nazis and without Hamas as the cause. No accidental shooting, no report, premeditated murder, bombings with poisonous gases.” According to her, the IDF filled the tunnel in which he was held with gas, and [her] son was poisoned to death."

Her full reasoning can't be assessed, but here's some commentary she added: 

“Ron was kidnapped because of the criminal negligence of all the senior officials of the army and the damned government who gave the order to eliminate him in order to settle a score with some terrorist from Jabalya.” The mother claimed that “they found that he also had several crushed fingers, apparently due to his desperate attempts to get out of the poison grave that the IDF buried in him when he tried to breathe air, but he only breathed IDF poison. There is no future for this country if this is what they did to you after they abandoned you that Saturday. What was the decision if Bibi’s son was there in the terrorist’s tunnel or Gallant’s grandson? Or the son of Hertzi Halevi? Would they also have been poisoned with gas bombs?”

On the 12/14 strike - The Messenger via MSN: Top Hamas Commander Who Survived Two Assassination Attempts Killed in Israeli Airstrike (msn.com) - no mention of any chemical weapons employed in the operation. 

Before, October 26, Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal: "We have information from trusted sources that the [US's] plan with Israel is to send special American/Israeli forces, administered by the US and executed either by Israel or combined [US and Israel] to... use nerve gases, aiming to paralyse the capabilities of Palestinian soldiers in the tunnels and trenches without killing him so they do not kill the hostages or captives held in these tunnels," he said. (Middle East Eye ) But this wouldn't explain hostages in the tunnels dying. 

Sponge bombs? This came up at the same time. In itself, the stuff is dangerous to the eyes, but otherwise non-toxic. Does Israel Really Have 'Sponge Bombs' For Sealing Tunnels? (thedrive.com) Nothing meant to kill has been publicly discussed. But a tunnel sealed with sponge material might become extra lethal if any kind of gas was then poured in. We also know they've flooded some tunnels with sea water. As far as I know, that's what they did here.  

"Also, on December 12, 2023, the IDF recovered the bodies of Aden [Eden] Zakaria and Ziv Dado from the same area." (Jerusalem Post via MSN) Both are now thought to be killed on 10/7, bodies kidnapped to Gaza for later exchange. But both were considered missing until found dead. Were they actually kidnapped alive and then killed in this same incident, or another incident related to the same assault? I've seen no details like the state of decay they were in when found. 

December 15 IDF Shooting: Truly appalling - Alon Shimriz and Yotam Haim from Kfar Aza, along with Samer Talalka kidnapped near Nir Am, were somehow free and wandering Shejaya under Israel's bombing and then ground assault. We don't even know the story they would tell about how they escaped captivity before they found fellow Israelis, approaching the IDF soldiers cautiously with a white flag. The soldiers apparently saw a ruse and opened fire, killing 2 (unclear which) and wounding the third. He hid and cried for help in Hebrew. The shooting stopped, then somehow resumed, and the third guy was also killed. The IDF just cannot get these people back home alive, even when they escape on their own and even when they do that AND survive the first round of inexplicable shooting. There just has to be another round of shooting. (you should know this story - CNN just in case)

January 15 IDF airstrike: Killed on or around Jan. 15 after an IDF airstrike: Yossi Sharabi, 51 and Itay Svirsky, 38, from Be'eri. Eitan Levy was also killed. Details left unresolved on my end.  

A posts on the Jan. 15 Hamas video - https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1746998477593203160: an injured Noa Argamani says an IDF airstrike killed Sharabi and Svirsky. But Oli notes "one of the men appears to have died from a severe head wound with the other showing signs of strangulation- pointing to Hamas being responsible for their deaths. It comes after the terror group released a video game style propaganda video asking viewers to guess which hostages were alive or dead."

January 15, Times of Israel - via MSN: IDF fears for the lives of the 2 men after seeing the video where they seem dead. 

"IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Monday evening that Hamas’s claim that the military targeted a building where the three hostages were being held, killing two of them, was a lie. However, he indicated that it was possible that the hostages were located close to a building that was targeted by the IDF and may have been endangered." “Itay was not killed by our forces. This is a Hamas lie,” Hagari said. “The building where they were held was not a target and was not attacked by our forces.” They know this because “We did not know their exact location in real-time. We do not strike where we know there are hostages. In retrospect, we know that we attacked targets close to the location where they were held,” Hagari said, adding that the IDF was investigating the footage in the propaganda clip published by Hamas.

They won't strike unless they know the hostages aren't there - but they don't know where they were - it's "possible" they were in a nearby building. Actually, "in retrospect, we know" they were in a nearby building, but they aren't sure which one or how nearby. Couldn't they also be in the same building? Sure, but they didn't know that, and "the IDF do not strike where we know there are hostages." So if the IDF killed them, it was accidental, and the Hamas claim that the IDF accidentally killed them is a terrorist lie.

Add 2/11: Noa claims on video: F-16 strike, 3 rockets, 2 of which exploded. Only Yossi was killed then; Noa and Itay survived, were relocated, but Itay was killed by another IDF airstrike at that time. Between the two strikes, Noa says she suffered shrapnel injuries to the head and body. She also notes that food and water are running low.  https://t.me/resistmirror1/2996

Hagari "said ... Hamas’s claim that the military targeted a building where the three hostages were being held, killing two of them, was a lie. ... “Itay was not killed by our forces. This is a Hamas lie.” If the unstated part is: "we only killed Yossi then. Itay came later," then he agrees with Hamas and Noa, wordplay aside.  

Add 2/11: Eitan Levy died separately and much earlier - before Dec. 8. Not sure how he got mixed in with these reports.  

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-confirms-oct-7-death-of-be-eri-resident-dror-kaplun-with-archaeologists-help/ar-AA1lbCk2

"On Friday the Bat Yam municipality said Eitan Levy was dead. He was previously considered a hostage in Gaza. The municipality said it was informed Thursday night by the IDF that Levy was no longer alive. His body is held in Gaza. It was not clear how and when Levy was murdered."

Adds Feb. 11: 

Some listed as kidnapped and still alive, likely aren't, including an infant and a toddler. Embarrassingly, I had missed this story when it came up, and when I assembled this post. 

Nov 29: Hamas says 10-month-old hostage Kfir Bibas was killed in Israeli bombing, alongside his brother, Ariel (4), and their mother, Shiri, in earlier bombing. This was to explain why they weren't among those released at the time. But "Israeli authorities on Tuesday said they believed the family had been handed over by Hamas to another Palestinian militant group in a possible complication of efforts to free them." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/29/hamas-says-10-month-old-hostage-kfir-bibas-was-killed-in-israeli-bombing

As of mid-February there's been no further news to challenge the Hamas claim, and these hostages have likely been dead for some time now. They're likely included in the ~50 early deaths, but add to the 11 considered above, for 14 likely killed in known IDF operations. But that's still not accepted, as people demand Kfir be brought home, and Oct7map lists "Yarden, Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the entire Bibas family, were all kidnapped by Hamas. Bring them home." From Nir Oz. Father Yarden was likely kept separately and likely survived, at least to then. 

I think these 2 children are the only ones Hamas still allegedly refuses to release. If so, note they already explained why they cannot ever release them, and as far as we can tell it's true.

One listed as just "murdered" was apparently killed in captivity - Ofir Tzarfati, 27 was abducted from the Nova party. He was reportedly severely wounded. "He was believed to have been kidnapped for over 50 days; it was only after his family received the devastating news that he had been murdered. A few days later, the IDF has retrieved his body in a special operation inside Gaza." https://oct7map.com/OfirTzarfati

Dec. 2: his family "was informed on Thursday that he was murdered by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip." He likely died from his severe injury and lack of medical options, but that's just a guess. https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/israel-news/2243758/idf-recovers-captives-body-confirms-deaths-of-6-captives-in-gaza.html 

2 new deaths reported Feb. 11: Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip during the past 96 hours have killed two Israeli hostages and seriously injured eight others, Hamas's armed-wing Al Qassam Brigades announced on Sunday over the group's Telegram channel.

"Their conditions are becoming more dangerous in light of the inability to provide them with appropriate treatment.(Israel) bears full responsibility for the lives of those injured in light of their continued bombing," the statement said." Identities not provided.

That makes 16 and likely to grow. "Israel’s chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that 31 of the remaining hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were dead." That's up 6 since a month ago, up 11 from mid-December - probably not counting these 2 new deaths.

اليوم الـ 128.. القسام يؤكد مقتل أسيرين وإصابة 8 آخرين : كتائب الشهيد عز الدين القسام (alqassam.ps)

https://www.arabnews.jp/en/middle-east/article_115008/

France 24 live updates for the 11th relate the claims of new deaths and notes, on the same day "Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Sunday that "enough" of the 132 remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza are alive to justify Israel's ongoing war in the region." "We're going to try to do our best to get all those who are alive back and, frankly, also the bodies of the dead," he said in the interview with ABC's "This Week" programme." As long as this many remain alive, Israel will keep on killing them, refusing any ceasefire or concession even to save their lives, fearing that it would also spare Palestinian lives. https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240211-%F0%9F%94%B4-live-netanyahu-pledges-safe-passage-to-palestinian-civilians-ahead-of-rafah-operation

Add 2/12: Qassam brigades says three of the injured 8 hostages have now died. That would make 5 more killed. They're waiting to see who else dies before releasing the names and final statuses.  "The Al-Qassam Brigades announce the killing of 3 of the eight Zionist detainees who we announced yesterday were seriously injured in the barbaric Zionist raids on the Gaza Strip. We will postpone announcing the names and photos of the dead for days to come until the fate of the rest of the wounded becomes clear." https://t.me/resistmirror1/3927

Feb. 13 add: Two Rescued! 

Just after the above updates, I saw the big news - Israel claims to have rescued two hostages in Rafah and got them home alive, without making any deal with Hamas, and in fact killing some of their fighters, along with quite a few civilians. The rescued were named as Fernando Simon Marman (60) and Louis Har (70), who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak. 

As luck would have it, Israel's actionable intel and opportunity came just as they aired a Superbowl ad about bringing home hostage dads. And these two fathers had Argentinian nationality. Argentina's bizarre new Libertarian-Fascist and highly pro-Israel president Javier Milei had just visited Israel on Feb. 9, urging the release of all Israeli hostages, including the 11 Argentinians believed to be held. "Milei said he would work to bring about the release of all the hostages, regardless of nationality: “There are Argentine nationals among the hostages as well, but this is a crime against humanity, and this must be redressed.”" 

https://jewishinsider.com/2024/02/javier-milei-argentina-israel-benjamin-netanyahu-jerusalem/

These 11 included, "most famously, Shiri and Yarden Bibas and their redheaded sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 1." However, as noted above, that whole family, perhaps excluding Yarden, were likely killed by the IDF months ago. So there were probably 8 Argentines tops, and then 2 of them were rescued about three days later. Milei was soon thanking Israel for this feat, in even greater awe of their amazing powers. 

That's all interesting and raises vague suspicions. Nonetheless, I don't suspect the event was faked or postdated as some have argued, finding that one of the men was freed in November and/or December, or from Khan Younis instead of Rafah, or that both were freed on February 2, not 12. The latter anyway is likely a typo and the others ... something. I haven't read up on all the details, but consider: "Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said special forces broke into a second-floor apartment in Rafah under fire at 1:49 a.m. Monday, accompanied a minute later by airstrikes on surrounding areas." As if describing the same thing, Gaza's Health Ministry says at least 67 civilians were killed in Rafah airstrikes at around "2 a.m." 

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-02-12-2024-4ade5edf47711c6b0c13d1380980de2b

There are aerial thermal imaging videos of the raid and a related bomb strike that Israel has published (from various posting on X, not cited here but not hard to find). These depict complex, rescue-like movements at a certain spot in Rafah. After some flailing and then a lucky break, I was actually able to geolocate the spot, by the matching details shown below (some labels for matching details, some indicating raid details, partly from the videos and here just copied for consistency, and another 100+ matching details not indicated): 31°17'46.01"N - 34°15'24.71"E. 

https://twitter.com/CL4Syr/status/1757383431988941274

It's near city center, not on the outskirts at all. It seems the rescue was in the middle building with a red circle where a shooter was located. The building to the north has been hit and is intensely burning (purple box). The one to the south is also bombed on its roof, perhaps twice (there seems to be a hole above, at the yellow star, just before a powerful blast is shown there). It's not clear how many civilians died in this area vs. at the refugee camp also hit that night or in any other parts of Rafah, but the overall death toll wound up over 100 and still climbing as the severely injured continued to pass away. Children are of course included once again. https://twitter.com/doamuslims/status/1756860608941641763

Gunning down Partygoers?

October 7 Massacre in Israel, part 3: Gunning down Partygoers?

November 30, 2023

update 12/3

< Part 2: Who was Behind the Kibbutz Massacres?

3A)  Mistaken Identity and Partygoers

Max Blumenthal's article gives some examples of fatal or nearly-fatal mistaken identity in the IDF response to the October 7 attacks.  

"Adi Ohana was shot dead by Israeli police near his home after being mistaken for a Palestinian guerrilla. “An innocent man was killed in the most negligent way possible,” his niece complained. Israeli media is now filling up with reports of the military gunning down fellow Israelis, even as they were defending their homes from Palestinian gunmen."

A lot of other people were in a worse position. Hundreds were there for the Nova electronic music festival, nowhere near their homes, and were left running about in the area and trying to drive away. To the IDF, they might look like terrorists running around, maybe headed to kill civilians, or trying to escape a crime scene. 

Some partygoers came close to being killed by the IDF, but survived to explain how those weren't Hamas bullets. Others would be less fortunate, leaving us less informed.

Israeli security forces also opened fire on fleeing Israelis whom they mistook for Hamas gunmen. A resident of Ashkelon named Danielle Rachiel described nearly being killed after escaping from the Nova music festival when it was attacked by militants from Gaza. “As we reached the roundabout [at a kibbutz], we saw Israeli security forces!” Rachiel recalled. “We held our heads down [because] we automatically knew they’d be suspicious of us, in a small beat-up car… from the same direction the terrorists were coming from. Our forces began shooting at us!”

“When our forces fired at us, our windows shattered,” she continued. It was only when they shouted in Hebrew, “We’re Israelis!” that the shooting stopped, and they were taken to safety.

Initially, 260 people were reported killed at the rave. I did a manual count of entries at Ha'aretz where 327 were specified, noting that others likely were, by appearance or listing between attendees, and just didn't have it specified. Soon, an updated count of 364 confirmed deaths was published, and it may be even more. 

I Watched The Hamas Massacre Film. Here Are My Thoughts. - YouTube

some fighters want to save ammo for soldiers, spare on person when they decide he's not a soldier

I wouldn't deny that Hamas fighters killed quite a few partygoers. Some were shot dead with rifles in their cars. There are several cases on video of Hamas shooting and tossing grenades at young people hiding in bomb shelters. Even if the plan was to take captives and not to wantonly kill, some killing was surely allowed and committed, at least to prevent escapes and encourage surrenders, and maybe just to kill whoever they couldn't nab, or to kill as many as possible. 

Still, for all their efforts, Hamas didn't get many captives here: According to October7map.com, 364 partygoers were killed and just 27+ Kidnapped, 2 of them safely returned as of 11/27.  This is like one of the kibbutz attacks (see part 2) where they mainly killed rather than kidnapping - those cases seemed to involve battles with the IDF sometimes ending with massive Israeli tank fire that causes many of the deaths. Is it the same here, but even worse? 

If there were an element of an expanded "Hannibal directive" at play here - to kill Israeli civilians rather than let them be taken captive ...  vs. in the kibbutzim ... pure accident is also more likely to play a role, including the role of blanket excuse for a "mass Hannibal" of Israeli youth.

3B) Apache Attack

The problem of mistaken identity was no better, and the possibility of mass carnage much greater, when the guns were heavier and operating from Apache helicopters. For now I'm not sure about details like how many helicopters were used, where from and when they arrived, if they were duly informed of the rave, etc. But if there were a "Hannibal" option at play, to make it seem accidental, you might tell the pilots about thousands of terrorists, fail to tell them about the rave, then send them to that area to decide "there's our thousands of terrorists. Open fire!"

As I gather, the Apache mainly employs "Hellfire" and/or "Hydra 70" missiles, and a chain gun cannon that rapid-fires 30mm rounds like huge, explosive bullets. That's deadly stuff when paired with air supremacy over unprotected civilians in the desert, with no cover past their explosive cars. And just as everyone looks suspicious on security camera, whoever tried to flee might have looked like a target. 

Max Blumenthal's piece cites Israeli reports:  “The Apache pilots testify that they fired a huge amount of munitions, emptied the ‘belly of the helicopter’ in minutes, flew to re-arm and returned to the air, again and again. But it didn’t help and they understand it."

The Apache helicopters appear to have focused on vehicles streaming back into Gaza from the Nova electronic music festival and nearby kibbutzes, attacked cars with apparent knowledge that Israeli captives could be inside. They also fired on unarmed people exiting cars or walking on foot through the fields on the periphery of Gaza.

A report on the Apache squadrons by the Israeli outlet Yedioth Aharanoth noted that “the pilots realized that there was tremendous difficulty in distinguishing within the occupied outposts and settlements who was a terrorist and who was a soldier or civilian… The rate of fire against the thousands of terrorists was tremendous at first, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow down the attacks and carefully select the targets.”

From where I sit, it's difficult to say how many people Hamas just killed vs. tried to kidnap, only to have Israeli forces blow them off the road. My hunch is the latter category is the much larger one, that the Israelis killed hundreds of their own people just among the rave-goers. 

The IDF would later release video of hundreds of destroyed vehicles said to originate at the rave, and probably all but a few of them did. Some 40% of them (visual estimate) are burnt-out and partly melted, with many all but flattened by some powerful blasts from above. Some or all of this was potentially done by Hamas, say with mortars, although it would be hard to hit a moving car with one. And some or all damage could be from the Apache attack, that would have a better chance of hitting the target.

Possibly worthwhile OSINT task: examine car damage seen up-close, looking for 30mm holes, etc. I still haven't ... 

Blumenthal:

"Among the most gruesome videos of the aftermath of October 7, also published on the Telegram account of South Responders, shows a car full of charred corpses (below) at the entrance of Kibbutz Be’eri. The Israeli government has portrayed these casualties as Israeli victims of sadistic Hamas violence. However, the melted steel body and collapsed roof of the car, and the comprehensively scorched corpses inside, evidence a direct hit from a Hellfire missile."

As with some of the cars above, the roof was blown in by a powerful blast from above. Two bodies in the front seats are just lumps of yellowish charcoal, and the 2 in the back seem blasted backwards. At least one serious chest wound from is visible on the left, looking more like shrapnel than a bullet. These could be captives, but their hands aren't bound. They could be Hamas fighters, Palestinian civilian looters, or rave-goers not yet captured who were just trying to escape.

The scene is promoted as "Israeli couple burned alive in a car," maybe with their drivers, killed somehow by Hamas terrorists - maybe each was stabbed to death in front of each others' eyes, then they were burned alive, and never mind how the car got damaged. 

IDF Reserve pilot Col. Nof Erez doesn't seem to have direct, inside knowledge of the day's events, but when interviewed by Ha'aretz, he said "the Hannibal directive was probably deployed" for this hostage situation involving both civilians and military. But it was not the isolated kidnapping they had trained for; "What we saw here was a MASS HANNIBAL. There were many openings in the fence, thousands of people in many different vehicles, both with hostages and without hostages. It was an impossible mission to identify and to do what [the pilots] did." In such a chaotic situation, they would almost surely kill some hostages and perhaps even civilians fleeing from the terrorists. https://twitter.com/WarWatchs/status/1726671271017013494

Asa Winstanley, Electronic Intifada: "In a video posted only one week after 7 October, Major Graeme said that Israeli detainees in Palestinian custody were “possibly killed by Israeli airstrikes when the Israeli Air Force attacked vehicles that were returning into Gaza.” ... Major Graeme explained that after the airstrikes “there was some bodies there that the special forces went and collected.” Winstanley noted "If accurate, this account suggests that Israel is trying to cover up evidence that – whether intentionally or otherwise – it killed its own civilians on 7 October."

3C) A Debunked Video?

A "leaked" video was said to show helicopters firing on fleeing partygoers, like reports had suggested. On November 13, Newsweek found this false, deciding all civilians were killed by Hamas, and accepting the claims of the IDF - who had first published the video (at the end) - that it shows attacks only on Hamas militants. GeoConfirmed on X seem to have identified the spot - the border near Nahal Oz and Kfar Azza, a few kilometers north of the party. Thus it was probably "Hamas terrorists returning" to Gaza and had "no relation with the festival at all." 

I don't think that's certain at all, or necessarily relevant either way. Even accepting the location. Hamas often returned to Gaza with civilian hostages, from the party or the raided kibbutzim. Nahal Oz and Kfar Aza were nearby. Captives from there or even further might be brough back this way, depending what re-crossings were available. And some partygoers might as well, especially if they had fled north only to be captured nearby.

In the longer of two close views, we can see at least six people, 5 running away, one crouching next to the car, when it's hit and explodes. The runners seem to continue, but might've been gunned down after the video cut. They seem to wear a mix of light and dark shirts, not military uniforms, although it could be a mix of civilian captives and Hamas captors all running from a common foe. It could also be Palestinian civilian looters. 

A second scene shows at least 4 people running from another car before it's hit, and other scenes show a driving car destroyed and people fleeing on foot being shot down. Most likely, some but not all of those killed were militants.  

3D) Kibbutz Hostages Under Apache Fire

As Max Blumenthal first noted while appearing on Going Underground, there was at least one witness account he found after that article of civilians killed by helicopter attack. He was kind of enough to share the link with me: I thought this was my chance to escape, but I was wrong. They captured me. | October7 Blog - see also here: 

https://www.jta.org/2023/10/16/israel/i-decided-to-play-dead-my-son-is-still-missing-a-survivors-account-from-kibbutz-nir-oz

Witness: Neomit Dekel-Chen, 63, from Kibbutz Nir Oz. She tried to hide in her safe room until the terrorists smoked her out and then captured her. They and some hostages headed towards Gaza by the back fields, perhaps thinking - as the fighters in Be'eri did - that the IDF had the main roads closed off. Perhaps they did. It was around noon at the latest. "We walked for about 150 meters on the road toward Gaza, kidnappers, looters, and hostages, then Neomit and others - including her friend with "three little girls, two of them only 3 years old" - were carried in a cart pulled by "a tuk-tuk vehicle" (aka auto-rickshaw - a goofy little thing). 

"They continued to drive with us in the back, towards Gaza, when an IDF helicopter appeared above us. At some point the helicopter shot at the terrorists, the driver and the others. There was screaming in the tuk-tuk. All the terrorists were dead and we were alive, except for one for one of the women with us. She had died in the arms of her daughter, who had come to the kibbutz to visit and now would not leave her mother."

That's one resident of Nir Oz - unnamed here - who will be listed as killed by Hamas, when really she was killed alongside them. This does sound accidental, however, as if they did a decent but imperfect job of just hitting the captors. The others might have suffered injuries, but it seems they were okay to run. Aside from the distraught daughter, they ran, with Neomit carrying one of the younger girls. They headed more "towards the fields" than towards Gaza. 

Then, perhaps due to the suspicious running, it seems the helicopters attacked them, or something near them, a second time. "We were 50 meters into the fields when I was hit with shrapnel in my head, knee and back. I was bleeding." She doesn't say if the anyone else in the group was injured.

She poses this as lucky for her. More terrorists soon passed by, on her own tractor they had stolen. They took the others with them, but Neomit played dead. Because of the blood it worked, and they left her. She found water, and walked the fields as things quieted down. She managed to get back to the Kibbutz around 1:30 PM (it was in flames, and the army still hadn't arrived), and then to her daughter's house.

So that's at least one woman injured and at least one woman killed in repeated helicopter attacks on "terrorists returning to Gaza," as they might have seemed to some gung-ho pilots eager to vaporize terrorists. Even more clearly than the "leaked" video, this had nothing to do with the rave. And yet it matters.

3E) "She was raped and burned alive"

Once again starting with Max Blumenthal at the Gray Zone, and seemingly off-topic, we switch to an allegation of rape by Hamas terrorists that was said to be visually proven. 

In perhaps the most unsettling document presented by the Israeli government, reporters were treated to video showing “a partially burned woman’s corpse, with a mutilated head… The dead woman’s dress is pulled up to her waist and her underpants have been removed,” according to the Times of Israel.

Daniel Amram, the most popular private news blogger in Israel, tweeted the video of the woman’s burned corpse, claiming that “she was raped and burned alive.”

Having seen the footage himself, Max didn't buy that reading. "In fact, the young woman appeared to have been killed instantly by a powerful blast. And she seemed to have been removed from the car in which she was seated – and which may have belonged to a captor from Gaza. The vehicle was comprehensively destroyed and situated on a dirt field, as many others attacked by Apache helicopters were. ... many female attendees dressed in skimpy attire, and her bent limbs were typical of a body that had been seated in a car after rigor mortis, Israeli pundits and officials ran with the claim she had been raped."

Now I have seen the footage as well - it was posted to hamas-massacre.net as "The body of a woman who was burned to death." 

Add 12/3: the site has some new images and a new category - https://www.hamas-massacre.net/categories/murdered-in-the-streets - including a still view of this victim as "Woman killed and left on the street" - shown at right (end add). 

The video was filmed at night, probably 12+ hours after the attack. It's uncensored but kind of blurry, and vague on the underwear issue - I'll accept they're absent, which would be odd for someone in a dress that wispy. That plus the spread legs does raise suspicion. But I agree she suffered an instant death from a blast to the back of the head (see split scalp and broken skull edge visible), and she is seen burned next to a burned car with her knees bent. But I think Max missed some big clue in the massive wound to the woman's right thigh and the way her right arm sticks up in the air.

That the leg wound has a width of about 28-30 cm if the woman between 5'2" and 5'6" tall. The Apache uses M230 chain gun that fires 30mm shells (M230 chain gun - Wikipedia) - full shell size shown below. 

She was likely shot across the right thigh with one of these - apparently hit from the left, making a nasty black bruise on her inner thigh - with a downward angle to the right. This happened while her thigh was horizontal - perhaps seated in a car, or maybe crouching on the ground (especially with upper body turned to face the left), or maybe running with right knee up. 

These shells explode on solid contact (Wikipedia): "The M789 is the U.S. Apache's main tactical round, a High Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP) ammunition cartridge. ... designed to fragment upon impact, killing unprotected, standing people up to about 5 ft (1.5 m) away under optimum conditions." But her leg was just ripped open, not blown off. As I reason it, a shell might rip across her leg without its centrally-place fuze being triggered (diagram). 

In that case, it would detonate on the next solid contact. If that was a car door inches away, we'd see major explosive damage to her leg. I propose she was in the open, either crouching or running when first hit. She fell forward just as the shell hit the ground to her right and a bit behind her, or behind her left-turned head and back, and finally detonated. This took off the back of her head, blowing it open, and probably caused damage all up the back side, and some on the right side, mostly invisible here (there is at least one likely shrapnel mark on the right cheek).

That was my best guess for fatal injuries, but it's just a guess and there are other possibilities. I think it makes sense, but maybe it doesn't. I'm more certain about the next part.

For that right arm to stick out that way against gravity does not mean, as it might appear to some, that she was fending off an attacker and her arm froze that way when she finally died. A newly dead arm will flop down right away. What this means is that her body was originally in a different position: face-down and turned facing a bit left, right arm bent with palm on the ground and elbow up is all that makes sense. It would take some 8-12 hours or so for rigor mortis to develop so fully that her arm stays that way despite gravity -What Are the Stages of Rigor Mortis? 6 Stages (medicinenet.com)

Her arm now has to spite gravity because someone rolled her body over into this position, at least 8-12 hours after her death (and maybe longer - the rigor state fades off more slowly, so that this image could be up to 36 hours or so after death, on the second night). 

The new position would make the head wound less obvious, allowing for other apparent causes of death. It was only after this that I think her legs were spread, by the scene manipulator(s), to suggest rape, and her underwear was likely removed then, for the same reason (anyone wearing a dress that skimpy would probably wear panties too). I think it can only be in this position that her corpse was lit up and partly burned next to this car, separately from its own burning hours before. This might hide clues or be done just to suggest she was "burned alive" to heighten the horror.  

Good news: this poor woman probably died instantly, and did not suffer rape or burning alive. Bad news: There might be some innocent explanation, but this suggests some pretty twisted manipulation after the fact. Who could and would do such a thing, long after Hamas was chased away? There were the ZAKA and other rescuers, Israeli police ... it almost has to be someone in that class, someone among them with a sick agenda to exaggerate Hamas' crimes and/or obscure Israel's.

Above, "Major Graeme" had said “there was some bodies there that the special forces went and collected.” This may be one of those gathered up to hide the clues. But if so, the provocative pose made it irresistible as propaganda, so it got shown off anyway, luckily for the cause of truth and justice.

3F) A Limited Admission?

Israel admits it killed its own at Nova music festival (thecradle.co)

"An Israeli police investigation into the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival near the Gaza border on 7 October revealed that an Israeli attack helicopter killed some of the attendees, Haaretz reported on 18 November." 

"According to a police source, an investigation into the incident showed that an Israeli combat helicopter that arrived at the scene from the Ramat David base fired at Hamas fighters and other Palestinians who crossed through the border fence from Gaza into Israel, but also fired on some of the Israelis attending the music festival. According to the police, 364 people were killed there."

Article link: https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2023-11-18/ty-article/0000018b-e1a5-d168-a3ef-f5ff4d070000

Nothing there says the IDF killed the full 364, or any more than a few. But even this limited acknowledgement is not accepted by Israeli authorities, with the police leadership coming down hard on Ha'aretz for casting doubt on the official mythology and undermining the drive for war. "Foundation for the Defense of Democracies" spoke up for official sources over a free media, lamenting how "a flimsy Israeli newspaper article" citing "unnamed Israeli police source who said a few revelers may have been mistaken for terrorists and killed by an Israeli military helicopter" was being used by Palestinians and others to deny or minimize Hamas' actions. They cited an Israeli police statement:  “Contrary to the publication, the police investigation does not refer to the activity of the IDF forces, and therefore no indication was given of any harm to civilians caused by any aerial activity at the site.” It might be true, but it's not something they even looked into, or saw among the things they looked at, or have any idea about ... it's not something they officially speak about, anyway. Others shouldn't speak about it either. That's what will be investigated only AFTER Hamas has been eradicated.

Another citation adds: 

"The preliminary findings of the ongoing national inquiry, spearheaded by law enforcement and communicated to the international media, cast a spotlight on the profound and reprehensible acts committed by Hamas terrorists during the Nova music festival. Any effort to downplay the severity of these atrocities, as depicted in the misleading Haaretz newspaper publication, deserves unequivocal rejection." 

The "inquiry" is into how they can propagate a certain view in the public mind. Tip: that's not what inquiries into crimes do. That's called propaganda, and this is word play. But it's their basis to demand "Particularly at this time, we call on the media to show responsibility in their reporting, and to base their journalism on official sources only." We are in 100% war propaganda mode and only we can be trusted. Relevant facts that don't serve that purpose must be rejected. There can be no independent media checks on this.

Next: part 4: Visual Evidence, Seen and Unseen