The 43-Minute Atrocity Video

October 7 Massacre in Israel, part 4: The 43-Minute Atrocity Video 

December 4, 2023

update 12/5

This was meant to be the final installment in a 4-part series, until I got extra curious what was and wasn't included in the widely-seen and widely-cited 43-minute compilation of videos documenting Hamas atrocities on October 7. This review expanded to where it needs its own post now. Next will be a part 5 with some leftover visuals vs. claims and some review yet to decide.

4A) "Bearing Witness"

Israel has been clear since October 7 that Hamas is the same as ISIS or even worse, same as the Nazis or even worse. The most extreme accusations are all true and attest to savagery that, along with the widespread support it receives in Gaza, defies Humanity and moots related concepts like Human Rights as considerations in Israel's response to eradicate Hamas entirely at any cost. Let's start with some of the more shocking horrors we were told Hamas visited on innocent Israeli citizens (this is optional reading for the faint of heart):

... "a terrorist who admitted that he had clear orders to kill women and children and even rape the bodies of the dead" - "order to behead people and play football with the severed heads" - a hiding witness "saw a woman being raped by several Hamas terrorists, pulling her hair as they raped her and took turns. One of them cut her breasts off - the others played with them like a toy. The last terrorist to rape her shot her in the head and continued to rape her until her finished. Eyewitness also says some terrorists were carrying heads in their hands (beheaded) as trophies, saying there wasn’t a thing they didn’t do to the heads. She also saw a Hamas terrorist carrying a naked girl over his shoulder." 

Witness saw a lot! Some, including myself, are skeptical of such claims, that Hamas fighters on a likely suicide mission to kill and/or kidnap as many as possible would have the time for such elaborate cruelty, even if they had the inclination. 

Israeli officials claimed from the start that they have serious video evidence you would expect for crimes on the scale they allege, and just can't show it openly out of respect for the victims and their families, and/or because it's part of an investigation, and/or out of concern for the public's mental health. So by October 23 the IDF press office pulled together a 43-minute assemblage of video proof for the naysayers, antisemitic and otherwise. It's rarely mentioned, but apparently, the film has a title: Bearing Witness (2023 film) - Wikipedia). 

Purpose: to argue against a humanitarian ceasefire and to explain and justify Israel's relentless efforts to eradicate Hamas, even as that has come to involve a genocidal war on the people of Gaza. Or: "Major General Mickey Edelstein, who spoke to the assembled journalists, said they wanted to present an argument against the idea that there is any equivalence between the Hamas attack and Israel’s response."

Wood explained: “What he said they wanted to show was that this is what Hamas is doing. They are hunting down children. They are burning children. They’re shooting babies. They’re tying people up and burning them alive. The IDF, whatever their faults, they’re not doing that. There are babies the IDF has killed but you will not find footage of hunting those babies down in order to kill them. You’ll find them blowing up a building that has a baby in it. From that perspective of that particular officer this is a very different situation, and by seeing the raw video do you realize exactly how different it is.”

https://www.mediaite.com/news/i-hope-that-i-am-not-permanently-changed-the-atlantics-graeme-wood-describes-witnessing-footage-of-hamas-atrocities/

Of course an estimated 6,000 innocent children have been killed in very many buildings, but point taken - the cruelty isn't as immediate or clearly purposeful as what Hamas allegedly did to probably about 40-50 children total. But again ... the truth of even those allegations should not be taken as an article of faith. 

To doubt these claims is to engage in "Holocaust-denial like" activity, as Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesperson, put it. (Guardian) Israeli journalist Jotam Confino agrees the evidence for the gravest crimes of Hamas is overwhelming, and to deny that truth, "you may as well deny the Holocaust." Sharon Brous, a rabbi in Los Angeles, lamented “It should be enough that there are eyewitness accounts and there are funerals and there are shivas and there are bereaved families,” - people died, so obviously Hamas slaughtered them all in the cruelest ways. But sadly, the facts of death were not enough. "So there has to be a historical record that’s established, and these videos are part of establishing that record.” (Guardian)

Even now, Bearing Witness is only shown by invitation in private screenings that strictly bar any recording, out of respect for the families. But as Owen Jones noted "a significant amount [of the footage] is in the public domain." Indeed. Out of respect for the families, Israeli sources, some of them official, have been pushing some half of this material in our faces from the start. 

Some of the presentation is video of witnesses lodging the exact claims quoted above - basically "trust me, the movie." But there's also real meat - video proof of some genuine Hamas war crimes. That's the main point. Many influential people have been brought in for a private viewing, and they often walk out in tears or worse, and describe it as worse than anything they could have imagined. But a few have noticed it's not quite as horrible as the things they had already heard about, imagined as true, and been promised evidence for. 

A few noticed this bait-and-switch effect. Owen Jones, to his credit, gave a balanced account of the film's content. Serious war crimes are depicted, but "some high profile claims are not substantiated by the footage." As he saw it, there were no beheadings of living people, and no children are seen being killed (or not clearly - opinions differ on one possible case). "If there was torture too, there's no evidence given for it on camera," and "if there was rape and sexual violence, we don't see this in the footage either." He also notes the video selection wasn't random but probably culled from the worst they have, having gone through a lot of footage. The starting claims and their like are still "Trust me."  (note on Jones' overall presentation: including the watermelon shirt, it's kind of "poser" but authentic or not ... it's a good pose. Seeing all this suffering should make one want to end this cycle of violence, not to escalate it.)

Maybe not at the screening Jones attended, but in some cases, the presenters were pretty up-front about their failure to present the hard stuff: Matt Gutman, ABC News, 10/16 "You won't see rape, there's no rape in this video... We won't show you beheaded babies," a senior Israeli officer said to a small group of journalists, saying such images existed but would not be shown." This might be reasonable or even necessary. A viewer could be seriously traumatized seeing such things occurring in immersive video with audio - not to mention the victim's family, spirit or memory.

But there are ways they could have conveyed this supposed proof in less direct ways - drop the soundtrack, use still shots and blurring, etc. For example, a blurred rape scene with key site details might be matched to selected frames from the attacker's body camera placing him there with the victim, and maybe see him switching it off for then-obvious reasons. A baby beheading video could show the moment the blade is set to cut and end with the blurred results, all from the same body camera view. If they have any serious amount of evidence, something like this should be possible. Instead, all we get is possibly fabricated verbal accounts and poorly interpreted after-the-fact images (see below) to suggest such things happened. 

Reducing this to black humor should be in poor taste and off the mark. This little animation by Propaganda & Co. is just that - but JUST BARELY. This is about how it is. Real footage of relevant and criminal activity is shown, but the truly bestial stuff that really set Israelis ablaze and primed them for a prolonged genocide ... it's still secret and/or it doesn't exist. 

Oh, and they use editing. Per Shiv Aroor's "complete description" they show "a completely charred infant, the head of either an infant or a toddler, more charred infants and a dog shot dead in a living room ... an ISIS flag on the floor ... a woman shot dead in a baby playroom and another slumped with gunshot wounds in a laundry room" followed immediately with audio of a fighter calling his parents, bragging he killed 10 Jews, and his parents cheer in response. Several people find this the most "chilling" moment in the whole film. They're HAPPY about whatever the editors just showed me! Maybe flattening all of Gaza is a good idea if they're this messed up. 

But this ignores that those killed could be all or mainly soldiers, at least as far as the parents know (even the woman whose phone he calls with). It ignores that the parents are partly happy because their son is still alive. In fact one viewer, Aroor, noted the fighter's mother "comes to the phone apparently in tears, asking her son to come back with god’s help. He says there is no return, and that this is the way he has chosen for martyrdom. His weeping mother pleads with him to come home." Chilling stuff. It's also possible the call is fake, but to me, it fits perfectly between the mid-level brutality we see Hamas engaged in and the frayed connections to normal Humanity that would trail such a fighter into that dead end.

No one mentions a musical score or its absence, so I would guess it's there but subtle, and quietly purposeful. 

In this post, I'll consider all the widely-cited video scenes described by viewers. Some seem to describe already-public images that can be checked. Some that's public, or private but credible, does document serious abuses (or seems to), but as Jones noted they fail to support the more extreme claims. This is apparently the worst that Israel could find in thousands of hours of footage from: found cell phone videos, public and private security cameras, dash cams, and Hamas body cameras, worn by perhaps all of the estimated 1,000 fighters IDF killed between October 7 and 9 - the footage from many of these would be available unedited.

Sources for scene descriptions, mainly cited below by last name: 

Matt Gutman 10/16 https://abcnews.go.com/International/horror-israeli-authorities-show-footage-hamas-atrocities-reporters-notebook/story?id=104015431

Jotam Confino 10/23: Jotam Confino on X: "I just saw indescribable, raw footage...   

Gómez Armas 10/23 https://efe.com/en/latest-news/2023-10-24/live-carnage-and-bodies-in-ashes-israel-releases-footage-of-hamas-massacre/ 

Graeme Wood 10/23 Why Israeli Officials Screened Footage of the Hamas Attack - The Atlantic

Ronny Reyes, 10/23: https://nypost.com/2023/10/23/news/idf-shares-harrowing-videos-photos-of-hamas-attack/

Carrie Keller-Lynn 10/23 IDF shows foreign press Hamas bodycam videos, photos of murder, torture, decapitation | The Times of Israel

Shiv Aroor 10/26 - "A complete description" - https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/exclusive-complete-description-of-43-minute-footage-showing-oct-7-hamas-horror-2453663-2023-10-25

Charles Lane 11/1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/01/hamas-attack-videos-described/

Joe Kelley 11/1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54ebCq0iQ18

Evan Dyer 11/2 https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/israel-hamas-gaza-palestinian-1.7016989

Lee Kern 11/18 https://twitter.com/leekern13/status/1725791167902523403

Ruth Mark Eglash 11/25: 'I will be haunted forever’: Israel’s horrific video of Hamas atrocities leaves viewers shocked and sickened (foxnews.com)

Owen Jones 11/27: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5iG3DX7ho

Rabbi Shmuley: 11/29 https://twitter.com/RabbiShmuley/status/1729931042847351033

Rachel Johnson 11/30 https://ca.style.yahoo.com/opinion-rape-murder-mutilation-industrial-153245198.html

Public image sources: most are available at both Hamas-massacre.net and Hamas.com (Israeli fake, w/malware reported - visit only with caution), and variously in other places. Sometimes it gets deleted then re-posted, and I haven't kept track. You might find any missing images with your own search.

4B) Nine scenes depicting crimes as they're committed

4B1) Father Killed Shielding his Sons

Public (AFAIK): No. Several people agree this was the most troubling scene - Armas: "One of the most difficult scenes to watch, and one that caused a strong reaction among the reporters in the room" - including several camera views assembled to tell a complex story - a father and his 2 sons,  just roused from bed and still in their underwear, rush to hide "in the bunker in the courtyard" (Armas). Keller-Lynn: "Moments after they enter presumed safety, a hand appears onscreen, tossing a grenade in after the family. The father dies, and the boys exit, covered in his blood." (Aroor recalled shooting into the "courtyard of sorts," but everyone else saw a grenade used). The father managed to take the main blast and was killed, while his boys survived, covered in his blood. They cry and try to process the reality (one asks "Why am I still alive?") as the terrorist grabs himself a drink from their fridge (and/or "offers [the boys] water and coke from their own refrigerator" - Armas). Some noticed that the terrorist does not murder the children when he could have. 

The boys were apparently injured, one perhaps losing an eye to the shrapnel. One boy asks the other if he can see from his injured eye, and he says he cannot. No one specifies which eye it is - the video is apparently vague on the point. Armas: "Later, the mother can be seen arriving with two kibbutz security guards to find the father’s grenade-torn body at the door of the shelter." She breaks down sobbing, but with Hamas around, the guards have to rush her away, leaving the boys behind. You would assume the boys would be kidnapped back to Gaza, but it seems the fighters made an exception here and left them alone. Dyer noted "After a lapse of time, with no more gunmen present, the two boys appear to escape the property. Israeli officials were unable to say if they ultimately survived." Joe Kelley says he asked the embassy, who said they don't know the boys' fate. 

This can hardly be some recycled video from any other event. It hasn't been made public to check, but I have no doubt this terrible incident happened about as described (with recall varying). However, a DW report seems to refer to this scene, with Israeli military sources adding extra claims not reflected in or contradicted by the video: 

"Some recordings broke off abruptly, as if relatives could only allow so much to be seen. The rest of the footage remains under lock and key as part of an ongoing investigation, according to Olga Poliakov, military attache at the Berlin embassy. After the screening, she confirmed that Hamas terrorists at the Be'eri kibbutz had in fact stabbed out the young boy's eye. She said it remains unclear whether the mother and her two sons survived." 

No one noticed the fighter STABBING that boy in the eye. Most agree he lobbed in a grenade from a distance, and the boys emerge on their own. But he stabbed the boy's eye as well, then offered them a drink and left them alone as if in apology? And if they don't know what happened to the boys or their mother afterwards, how was it confirmed that an unseen stabbing took out his eye? They should have nothing to go on but that video. I wouldn't be surprised if they initially found that Hamas tore the father apart with a crowbar as his imagined family was made to watch, until they saw the video with the grenade, and the boys speaking of eye injuries.

Possibilities for what happened to this family: the boys wandered until other fighters who already had their mother took them captive, and they all headed for Gaza across backroads and fields, were blasted by an IDF helicopter, and left as charcoal in a field, perhaps identified later. They could have gotten pinned down in a house later flattened by IDF tank fire. They might have been safely taken to Gaza, and then: still held there, returned home, or killed there, perhaps in IDF strikes. Or of course they could have been murdered by Hamas back at the Kibbutz, as the IDF would prefer to argue. But it seems they couldn't find any video of that.

4B2) Attempted beheading with a hoe

Public: Yes. Hamas-Massacre.net: "Hamas terrorists arguing who gets to butcher an innocent Thai worker" Confino: "Hamas terrorist screaming [Allah Akhbar] as he frantically tries to behead a dead man with a shovel." - Shmuley: "a Thai worker who was beheaded with a pick-axe" - Reyes: "brutally beheaded using a shovel" - Eglash: "he relentlessly hacks the head off a Thai laborer with a hatchet" - Jones: "an unsuccessful effort to behead a dying Thai worker with a garden implement." Aroor: "a construction hoe." Aroor: "The attack does not decapitate the man, though it is clearly enough to kill him." Armas: "another one shows them crushing a dying man’s head with a hoe while shouting “Allahu Akbar”" Is "Thai worker" a guess, or does someone have these details? 

The video is bizarre. The victim is laying down, already injured, yellow shirt with apparent Hebrew lettering soaked with blood. He's moving his arms in weak defense as he's beaten until a moment after a kick to the head as the attacker asks for a knife. The victim then stops moving, as if playing dead. One assailant declares he will behead this Jew, and swings a larger sized hoe down into the man's neck, causing his body to jerk, with arms up awkwardly. He drops the hoe, and the other assailant takes over, misses the victim's neck a few times, hitting the concrete floor. Then he connects a few times, unclear if with the neck, chin, or what - causing the victim to jerk weakly each time. His head never comes off, and if any blood comes out at all, it's not visible at this angle. 

Do they crush his head or try to cut it off? Not clear. There's no good reason to call this an attempted beheading, unless you happened to be scraping around for evidence of beheadings, because you were already spreading stories about it.

The video is described as showing "Palestinian civilians" - not Hamas fighters. The one seen better is in civilian clothing. The video's authenticity is unclear, but presumably it is part of the day's events, when many Palestinian civilians also crossed over and engaged in looting, at least. The attacker's face is seen. Someone knows who that is. 

So anyway - some apparent Hamas civilian followers are seen on video perhaps trying to behead one man. This is the closest Israel could find for Hamas actually seen beheading anyone (that's still alive), child or adult, civilian or military, Israeli or foreign. Zero actual examples are shown, perhaps because none exist.

4B3) Shooting into a roomful of bodies

Public: Yes. This scene is not clearly mentioned by most, but it's included. Aroor: "The next clip is mobile footage taken by a Hamas terrorist inside a house. Chanting 'Allahu Akbar', he opens a room door revealing blood spattered on the floor and four bodies piled up." Gutman might describe it: "In another house, a gunman sticks the muzzle of his rifle into a room inhabited by a family. " That probably describes a scene I wondered about. Hamas-Massacre.net just had a still (at right - from a livestream with scrolling text and emojis seeming to approve). It's just now updated with 2 videos. Bloody dead people in a room, at least 6, possibly Thai workers or the like, partly from the cot in the dorm-like room. All are apparently young adult males, presumably shot to death, but with a likely blade wound above one's elbow, and maybe a sliced throat - but that victim (center) is alive, moves his left arm, and is then shot several times. In the other video, he's dead, rolled over.

The videos' authenticity is uncertain and the details unclear, but I'll assume this is what it seems - a mass killing of some men by Hamas terrorists on October 7. In other cases, this mainly happens with people who try to hide instead of surrender, and grenades are often involved. But here we don't see much sign of shrapnel, and some possible blade injuries instead. Again, the worst brutality against civilians that we can see, by Hamas and/or Palestinian civilians, is apparently against foreign workers and not Israelis. This may have been a special policy with political reasons. But in the end, several foreign workers were abducted instead of killed, so it wasn't a universal kill order. 

4B4) Hiding person shot

Public (AFAIK): No. Confino: "Hamas terrorists enter a house, where a small girl is seen hiding under the table. After some talking back and forth they shoot and kill her as she hides under the table. Hard to say how old she is but looks like 7-9 years old." Armas: "one video shows them murdering a young woman who is hiding under a table and begging not to be killed," Aroor: "One of the home’s occupants is clearly under the table, though it isn’t clear if he/she is alive or shot earlier. The terrorists chant Allahu Akbar and fire into the table. One of the terrorists is holding an American M4A1 carbine." Kern mentions how the room is dark and flashlights are used, but he thinks it's a woman hiding under a table and she's been shot already before they shoot her again.

 

Jones: someone claims they saw "footage of Hamas terrorist screaming at a young girl of around 10 years old, she was hiding under a cupboard or perhaps a table and they shot her." Jones didn't recall this, and asked 2 others who didn't recall it either, and they were assured they wouldn't see any children being killed. But Jones did see a noisy, chaotic scene where "someone hides ... and is found and it's not clear how old they were or whether they died." Well, clearly that's the scene they meant. But clearly, the victim's age, gender, and living status before and after are all unclear.

4B5) Unarmed female soldiers killed

Public: No, or perhaps - I'm not sure if this is the same scene described and shown here, from the Hamas point of view: Hamas gunmen shoot dead female Israeli soldiers hiding under table in sickening clip (msn.com). Unarmed soldiers are supposed to be taken prisoner, not executed, according to the rules of war. Aroor: "The next clip is mobile footage filmed by a group of women IDF soldiers inside a room. The sound of rifle fire can be heard nearby as the women speak to each other in panicked whimpers. They huddle together. The screen cuts to black." Gutman: "Then, at one point, the girl shooting the selfie video sees an armed man on the far side of the shelter. She asks, "Who is that man?" He's a Hamas fighter, calmly standing there. Then the video ends." Jones and others relate the video showing the man opening fire, but those 2 have the scene ending before that. Maybe different edits have been used. Hamas did execute soldiers, besides taking many captive. These probably went the same. There's no mention of the women being raped. Just killed.

4B6) Hiding partygoers hit with a grenade 

Public: No, or perhaps. in a "container" or a shelter: I've seen similar scenes, perhaps the same one, as seen from inside shelters and inside a trash bin, and from outside shelters on Hamas bodycam. They fire in and hurl grenades. People inside have missing limbs and terrified. I have no doubt this horrible scene really occurred a few times over. I can't vouch for all of the details Matt Gutman relates from the grenade detonation forward, apparently involving edits between different views and maybe different incidents, but I'll pass them on: 

"The camera shows a flash of limbs, some dismembered, some still attached to writhing, screaming bodies. A selfie camera shows a young man weeping, while someone croaks hoarsely in the background, "help, help." Hamas then drags survivors out, some by their hair, to trucks, and then batters them some more in the backs of the pickups on the way to Gaza."

4B7) Beheaded soldier, already dead 

Public: Unclear. There's a photo at Hamas.com but not Hamas-Massacre.net of a "beheaded soldier" - injured around the corner, dragged here, executed with a gunshot to the back of the head, gaping exit wound visible on his still-attached forehead (here, just in case), likely the same head wound seen up-close in another image right above that. But it's likely they refer to a different scene where the actual cutting is seen. Shmuley: "a soldier that was beheaded in front of our eyes" - Jones too spoke as if he saw enough of the cutting that he had to look away. If so, that's body mutilation on top of executing a captive soldier. That's not legal. But it's also not the same as cutting the head off of a living man, let alone infant or toddler.

Add 12/5: they referred to a different soldier, but one just off-frame from this one. And it was postmortem body mutilation, not an execution. Val on X has the before view and some after views, and he might have the beheading video in between but it probably wouldn't be allowed and I don't need to see it. I've seen it before on dead and living people and know it's terrible.

4B8, 9) Dead soldier body stomped on, a very friendly but not too bright dog shot dead 

Public: Yes to both. As with the above, no contest. I've seen the footage around. People in Gaza hate Israeli soldiers, and one of the Hamas terrorists just didn't care and shot that poor dog.

4C) Some After-the-Fact Images

Other footage included in Bearing Witness relates various attacks on homes, arrests, celebrations (FWIW from people planning to die themselves), and some of the aftermath. This is where viewers were allowed to see indications of rape and children that had been killed, maybe even beheaded. The actions aren't seen, but imagination is encouraged. 

Aroor: "The next picture is a still image. It’s a picture of an infant in diapers with three gunshot wounds, including one in the head. It’s an unblurred version of the same image that the Israeli Foreign Ministry released days after the October 7 attack in the wake of the ‘beheaded babies’ report from Kibbutz Kfar Aza." Blurred version at Hamas-Massacre. No included video shows a Hamas fighter shooting the baby. The injuries could be from crossfire for all we know. 3 bullets in the same baby's head must be very small caliber, likely overkill, and maybe just shrapnel. No wounds to the rest of the body are visible, but the blood pattern suggests there may be more wounds to the invisible back side, and the head wounds seem to be more on the back. It could from an IDF tank shell, for all we know, but even more likely from a grenade Hamas tossed into someone's shelter, or from a door they blasted open trying to get at more people to kidnap. A brutish operation like this is bound to kill people including babies, even if they weren't specifically gunning for them.

Aroor, continued: "a completely charred infant, the head of either an infant or a toddler, more charred infants..." These views may all be public, or anyway similar ones are. Homes were set ablaze by Hamas to smoke people out of their shelters, and other houses collapsed and burned around terrorists and hostages alike following IDF rifle and tank fire. The charred head is specific enough to say I've probably seen it, at Families Murdered in Their Homes | Hamas Massacre (hamas-massacre.net) There's a short video of "An Israeli baby that was beheaded and burned." A small head with no body is shown, lightly charred and apparently mangled, likely suffering from decay as well. A charred knife is leadingly set next to the head, but it was probably blown off in a blast that mangled it and also destroyed the child's whole upper body. 

Another "beheaded and burned" example is set next to that at the website (but not included in the film that I can tell). This one is an adult in bad decay (just too gross to show here), with head and body both present, but with most of the shoulders and neck blasted away. The head is still connected by some skin in the front. That's not a beheading, but more like an RPG hit between the upper shoulder blades. 

Just a hack opinion, you say? "On Oct. 20, 2023, forensic experts told reporters they had seen evidence of beheaded babies but could not confirm if knives or rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) caused the decapitations." This study was done at the Israeli government's request, to bolster its case for war. Perhaps these experts could say what caused these deaths, but chose not to, out of deference to Israel and its important propaganda effort. Beheading with blades could be left at "possible," another Hamas-grade weapon at "possible," and any IDF-specific weapon at "not even considered." https://themedialine.org/top-stories/evidence-on-display-at-israels-forensic-pathology-center-confirms-hamas-atrocities/

Rape Suggested: No Panties

Several accounts mention a scene of a woman's partly charred and mutilated body being inspected, dress pulled up, no panties, legs spread, presumably raped. Keller-Lynn: "In another clip, from after the assault, an Israeli woman is seen trying to work out if a partially burned woman’s corpse, with a mutilated head, is that of a family member. The dead woman’s dress is pulled up to her waist and her underpants have been removed." Owen Jones describes it the same, but notes while it counts as evidence for rape, it's not conclusive proof of it. Andrew Neil responded, incredulous: "That just because we see a young woman's burnt corpse with no underwear and a pool of blood, it doesn't mean she was raped?" No, it doesn't. It seriously does not. 

No one mentions how her right arm is frozen up in the air as if in defense from an attacker. It might have been appealing, but they might have realized that makes no sense. As related in part 3, this woman is not a rape victim burned alive, as advertised. She was only posed that way many hours after death from a head injury, likely from an Israeli Apache helicopter. Having examined the video shared at Hamas-Massacre.net, I argued that a 30mm exploding shell grazed her leg before hitting the ground, detonating there and blasting off the back of her head. 

That may not be the case, but either way, she died from the visible head wound, fell face-down with right elbow up and palm on the ground. Her body stayed that way for at least 8 hours for full rigor mortis to form. Only then did someone roll her body over into the position we see. It was only then she was posed as if raped and likely had her panties removed, by some sick person - presumably Israeli - who then partly burned her upper body to suggest "burning alive" as well. I propose this evidence actually shows some depraved war propaganda played out on the bodies of those killed, in part, by the IDF's own response.  

Rape Suggested: Panties Half-On

If Jotam Confino describes the above scene at all, it's mixed into this recall of two apparently raped women he saw in the film: "Two dead women lying on the grass at musical festival - both with no pants on. One has her panties taken half off. The other doesn’t appear to have any on at all." It sounds like that's all in a single image, but no such image is mentioned by anyone else.   

The one above is not visibly on grass, and in fact in the dirt on the side of the road, only seen in nighttime views, with no second body visible. No one else I've seen mentions the other woman Confino saw, but Rabbi Shmuley recalls: "women raped, legs open, bodies mutilated" (features of one case, but attached to plural "women"). Rachel Johnson likewise recalled seeing "the women with no underwear, with splayed legs and livid bruises to their necks and faces set in rictuses" seemed to her like "conclusive evidence of rape." FWIW, Aroor's "complete" description somehow omits both scenes.

Confino is likely mixing 2 scenes, one - shown at right - with grass and 2 bodies visible in bright daylight, just one body disrobed as described, and both outfits seeming kind of military in color. This was once posted the Nova party page at Hamas-Massacre.net which - according to Blumenthal - is run by Israeli foreign ministry (he links there and says "The Israeli Foreign Ministry has published the fake photo here"). At right is a cropped screenshot as it appeared. Confino likely saw this same image and confused the other scene as showing the second body on the grass here, but seen closer in a nighttime view. 

This was presented as a Nova party attendee "raped and killed" by Hamas, but was quickly exposed by Max Blumenthal on X as an irrelevant, recycled image. Months earlier, in May, 2023 a Japanese website showed this image as "beautiful Kurdish soldiers killed on the battlefield," likely by ISIS, probably in Syria. I didn't try to dig further. Another, now-deleted post that Blumenthal found showed the same image back in March, 2022. 

It was not from Israel in October 2023, but it got included among images of the day. How does a mix-up like that happen? Does it suggest a shortage of genuine visual evidence for Hamas rape? 

The image was thereafter deleted from the Hamas-Massacre site, allowing people to imagine it was never there and that Max created that screenshot. But this can be checked, and anyway there's Mr. Confino apparently describing the same image as included in Israel's official documentary film "Bearing Witness," as shown to hundreds of influencers. Owen Jones and others mentioned the above case, but no second example. Jones and others saw the film after this fake image was exposed and then deleted from Hamas-Massacre.net. Was it deleted from the film as well by this time?

Confino added to his recall of the two rape victims: "And for those wondering why police aren’t releasing graphic video and photo documentation to the entire world; out of respect for the victims. It’s an ongoing investigation. Releasing evidence in cases like this to the public is not custom anyhow." But per the description, it seems that someone did release both images to shock the public with. One was fake, and the other one, as explained above, suggests an even sicker manipulation.

Rape Suggested: Bloody Pants 

Public: Yes, around since about day 2. Lee Kern noted the scene of a barefoot girl, blood on her pants, pulled from the back of an SUV and moved to the back seat. Aroor: "Next is a clip that Hamas had posted on social media soon after the attack, showing terrorists dragging a woman (her hands bound, face bloodied) out of the boot of a jeep and pushing her into the back seat. This appears to be in Gaza. A small crowd forms chanting 'Allahu Akbar', while two men stand with their middle fingers raised akimbo."

I notice injuries to her ankle and elbow, at least. I'd say she was shackled at the ankle to something, then somehow suspended from that, or perhaps fell out of the truck and was dragged for a bit, tearing up her elbow as well - the internal bleeding might be somehow related to that, or from a previous or subsequent rape, or some other injury like a gunshot during her capture, or in a wreck caused by IDF fire on her captors, or perhaps just menstrual blood after her tampon fell out (I'm no expert - maybe that cannot explain it). It takes some imagination to assume this proves rape any better than the other images.

4D) Review: Bearing Witness to mixed evils 

Review of select recorded crimes and after-the-fact images: 

Bearing Witness seems to clearly document Hamas fighters executing unarmed or captive Israeli soldiers and killing civilians in cars and homes (especially but not exclusively if they tried to hide or flee). By Hamas or Palestinian civilians who crossed behind them, extra brutality was visited on foreign workers. They cruel kidnapping terrified civilians including children, and engaged in looting, wanton vandalism, and whatever else that went unseen. And some undesirable aspects of Palestinian society were also displayed or suggested along the way (taking joy in mutilating corpses, etc.), and were made costars alongside dead women and babies and the ISIS flag.

As Jones noted, no firm evidence has been provided for beheading of living people, execution of children, rape, or torture. The implicit suggestion - not a certainty - is that these things never happened, and the corollary of that is the stories of such crimes were invented. In fact ... An unrelated image from another country in another year was seemingly recycled to illustrate rape, and some presented video suggests a woman's body was manipulated by some Israeli(s) to suggest rape and "burning alive." After Israel showed video of a grenade injuring a boy's eye, as if that wasn't criminal enough, they added that while they have no further info on the boy's fate, they do know Hamas actually stabbed the boy's eye out. Even when they have video, the unsupported horror story needs to prevail. 

And under the surface of all this lies the massive ambiguity about who really killed whom. The staged rape victim might well have been killed by IDF helicopter. A "beheaded baby" and charred pieces of others are probably not caused by Hamas using any weapon, when some 200 of their fighters were in the same charred bits right next to them, in homes blasted by Israeli tanks and in cars apparently hit by their helicopter fire. 

 

Bearing Witness has become a key part of Israel's war propaganda, designed to replace the Human reality of events with a narrative of pure good vs. pure evil. It seems intent on instilling such a hatred of Hamas it bleeds over to all Palestinians and can fuel what may be a pre-planned genocide for the sake of "Greater Israel." If the full truth behind all the images was really known, it's likely that the film would implicate the IDF even deeper than Hamas for grave war crimes on October 7-9. The full truth is not known, so we can only say the film documents mixed evils resulting from a deeply toxic climate, and that it helps to deepen that toxicity.