Foreign Affairs

‘I Think We Are Going To Die’: Film Gives Glimpse Into Horrors Of October 7 Hamas Terrorist Attacks

No featured image available

• The Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. invited a small group of journalists and religious leaders to relive the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel through a compilation of footage collected by the Israeli military.
• The 46-minute film showed a variety of atrocities from the beheaded Israeli military members, burned bodies of children and video of terrorists dragging hostages into Gaza all while cheering and praising Allah. 
• “Let history be my witness that this was the first man I killed. The first one. A Jew,” one terrorist yelled. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — For 46 minutes, a small group of journalists, including the Daily Caller News Foundation, were given an unvarnished view of the horrors of Hamas terrorists unleashed on Israeli civilians on October 7th. The compilation of videos and photos of the carnage left many in the room in tears or stunned into silence.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. hosted a screening Monday showing a film composed of body cam footage, CCTV cameras, videos on social media and audio recordings that captured a small fraction of the terror attack unleashed on the Jewish state. Journalists were told by embassy officials not to film or record during the screening out of respect for the victims’ families since many have not seen the footage themselves.

The film opened with Hamas terrorists shooting Israelis in their cars before dragging their bodies out and going through their belongings. One terrorist cheered as he ran around filming all of the bodies on the side of the road, kicking several in the head.

The first sign of distress from the screening’s audience, many of whom included local and national religious leaders, came after one terrorist took a garden hoe and repeatedly hacked at a man’s neck while he was still alive until the head had been removed from the body. A later clip showed a terrorist playing with the burned, severed head of another victim.

A recorded call between Hamas officials revealed them instructing the terrorists to bring back the body of a dead Israeli soldier to Gaza so the “people can play with it,” according to the film.

Eliav Benjamin, the deputy head of mission of the Israeli Embassy, told attendees that the footage was intended to make a person feel sick and repulsed. He argued that Israel’s war with Hamas was not a religious crusade, but a fight for civilization.

“Israel should not be apologizing for anything they are doing,” Benjamin said. “This is not a religious war … This is a war against those who don’t believe in civilization.”

The footage showed 138 victims killed by Hamas, less than 10% of the total killed that day, according to the film. It showed pictures of babies with their heads bashed in, a child who appeared to have its head mostly removed and body set on fire and a young girl in a Mickey Mouse nightshirt who had been riddled with bullets.

One of the more graphic parts of the film is when a father rushes his two boys, both preteens, out of their beds and drags them to the bomb shelter outside the house in nothing but their underwear. Hamas terrorists entered the courtyard and threw a grenade inside the shelter, killing the father, who fell to the ground.

His sons stepped out, blood running down their back and legs, some of it theirs and some their fathers. The terrorists dragged them into the house, where one of the boys cried for his father as a Hamas fighter rummaged through a fridge.

“Abba [father], Abba [father],” the smaller boy cried. “He’s dead!”

His brother tried to help him clean shrapnel from his back, saying, “Yes, he’s dead … I think we are going to die.”

The film also captured a different, but horrifying, interaction between a father and his son, a Hamas terrorist. The son called his father and told him to check WhatsApp to “see how many I killed with my bare hands, Dad. Your son killed the Jews.”

“Dad, I’m talking from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her and her husband with my bare hands … look at WhatsApp, see how I killed them,” the son said, while his father responded repeatedly saying “Allah is great.”

The son then demanded to talk to his mother, who could be heard crying in the background.

“Mom, your son’s a hero,” the terrorist said.

The film also contained footage of the Nova Music Festival, showing hundreds of burned-out cars, many with their passengers still inside. In one field, several severely burnt bodies were frozen in a fetal or crawling position as they tried to escape the terrorists.

Several minutes of the footage showed a young woman whose pants and underwear had been removed and her legs contorted into an unnatural position. The footage was recorded on a family member’s phone, who could be heard crying in the background. First responders to the festival frantically looked for any survivors, calling out “Is anyone alive? Give us a sign of life!”

Most of the attendees had their faces covered, many crying openly when the film ended, while others sat in silence stunned by what they saw. One man got down on the ground and cried as a pastor led the rest in prayer over the victims and Israel.

Many of the photos and videos in the film showed Israelis being killed in their beds and their kitchens in the early hours of that Saturday morning. Embassy officials reiterated to the audience that they show the footage to give the world an opportunity to see how these families’ Sabbath day began and ended in terror.