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