How do you describe the worst thing you’ve ever seen? That’s the question and the task facing your columnist this week after watching the 47-minute compilation of photos and videos from Hamas terrorists’ October 7 slaughter of Israelis. The visceral horror of the screams, the inhuman violence of Hamas terrorists, and the disgusting, inexplicably gleeful smiles on the faces of Hamas terrorists as they massacred innocent men, women, and children, are almost impossible to comprehend. Still, those who’ve borne witness to the compilation have a responsibility to share what they’ve seen.
The footage and photos came from Israeli dashcams, security cameras, Hamas terrorist bodycams, cell phones carried by music festival attendees, and traffic cameras around Israel, among other sources. What they show, from various perspectives, is the depraved barbarism of Hamas terrorists.
A security camera shows a father and his two young boys, caught off-guard by the Hamas assault on the morning of October 7, fleeing to a rocket shelter close to their home wearing only their underwear. Hamas terrorists soon give chase through their house, out into the yard, and toward the shelter where the three innocents are hiding. A terrorist pulls out a grenade and lobs it into the shelter.
While the video only captures what happened outside and at the entrance to the shelter, it appears the father acted quickly to sacrifice himself in order to save his children. The grenade explodes, leaving the father’s mangled body crumpled at the entrance to what is supposed to be a safe haven during rocket attacks launched by Hamas. His boys are dragged out, wounded and bloodied, by Hamas terrorists, who take them back into their home and make them watch as they dig through the family’s fridge in search of a drink.
The boys cry, shake, and confirm to each other that their father is dead. They call out for their mother and tend to each other’s wounds. One cries out declaring his wish to be dead rather than face the continuing horror unfolding around him.
Through the 47 minutes of pure terror and evil, it seems as though each scene is worse than the one before it. At the end of the compilation, text on the screen explains that the horror witnessed by viewers only showed deaths amounting to around 10 percent of the more than 1,200 innocent people slaughtered by bloodthirsty Hamas terrorists.
One innocent victim of Hamas, seen lying lifeless on the ground in footage captured by the terrorists themselves, is mocked by the gang of barbarian killers around him. They call for his body to be decapitated, and a terrorist picks up a garden hoe and brings it down swiftly on the innocent Israeli’s neck. But it’s dull. Again and again, the video shows the terrorists cheering as the hoe is swung into the innocent man’s neck.
In another video, a slain IDF soldier’s body is encountered by terrorists. With whoops and cheers, the barbarians smile widely in front of the dead soldier. One terrorist produces a knife and begins sawing at the Israeli’s neck. The recording doesn’t stop no matter how desperately one wishes it would. The rough beheading continues, with the terrorists proudly cheering their animalistic behavior as the head is finally, after what feels like hours of horror, separated from the body.
The terror continues one agonizing minute after another. First responders arriving at the scenes of Hamas barbarism shout urgent calls for “any signs of life” that go hauntingly unanswered. Instead of survivors, responders find piles of corpses, blood-soaked floors, and burned bodies.
Other clips show Hamas terrorists taunting female IDF soldiers as they scramble for cover, only to mercilessly massacre them with their firearms, firing so many rounds that another Hamas terrorist must command them to save their ammunition for others.
In addition to the jarring and graphic violence seen in the compilation, there are other videos showing how residents of Gaza reacted to the bodies of brutalized and murdered Israelis brought back to the Gaza Strip by terrorist leaders so that civilians could “play” with the slaughtered Jews. Crowds of Palestinians — yes, the people leftists and lawmakers such as Rashida Tlaib demand we stand with — gather around the bodies of murdered Israelis to kick their lifeless forms, stomp on their heads, and violate their corpses.
Intercepted audio of a phone call made by one Hamas terrorist — using the cell phone of an Israeli he murdered — to his parents in Gaza is equal parts disgusting and eye-opening. Excitedly yelling about how many Jews he killed with his bare hands to his father, the terrorist instructs him to check his phone to see photos of those he killed. The Hamas terrorist asks where his mother is, and she joins the call before breaking into tears of joy after hearing of her son’s killing spree.
There is no denying what one sees, though it would be a relief to think perhaps it was all a nightmare conjured by the darkest corners of the human mind. But it's so much worse than a nightmare. It's the reality of what happened on October 7. There’s no minimizing or justifying what Hamas did. There is no “both sides” argument that stands up. Hamas must not survive.
