How Hamas planned its October 7 attack on Israel

Le Monde

15/02/2024

Le Monde collected and analyzed dozens of videos of the group's attack, from CCTV footage to propaganda images. The documents give insight into the plan behind the October 7 attack.

Catégorie

🗞

News

Transcription

Afficher la transcription complète de la vidéo

00:00 The sun had not yet risen in Gaza when Hamas fighters launched Operation Alexa flood on

00:11 Saturday October 7th.

00:17 By car, motorcycle and on foot, dozens of Palestinian commandos advanced toward the

00:23 Israeli border.

00:24 They blinded surveillance cameras and Israeli defence systems and opened at least seven

00:30 breaches in the wall separating Israel from the Gaza Strip.

00:37 Once in Israel, Hamas fighters simultaneously attacked at least six Israeli military bases

00:43 and seven civilian residential areas, including one town, five kibbutzim and the site of the

00:50 Supernova music festival.

00:53 Command has reconstructed Hamas' strategy on October 7th after analysing and verifying

00:58 images from the day of the attack.

01:01 Their strategy involved lightning raids, simultaneous assaults and training.

01:09 Between Palestine and Israel are two kinds of borders, a high-tech fence and a concrete

01:15 wall.

01:17 To cross the border gate, Hamas fighters had to disable its defence posts, which are towers

01:22 topped with remotely operated machine guns.

01:28 Of the five towers filmed by Hamas fighters, at least four were destroyed by an explosive

01:33 device dropped from a drone.

01:36 They continued using drones to target telecommunications infrastructure, like this radio tower near

01:42 the Biri Kibbutz.

01:47 The aim was to blind the Israeli army as fast as possible.

01:53 Elsewhere, Hamas fighters attacked the border more directly.

02:02 By car, by bike and by foot, they were able to break through the border using hand-laid

02:10 explosives, like they did near the Biri Kibbutz.

02:16 A satellite image taken at the Erez checkpoint, north of the Gaza Strip, showed a breach in

02:22 the concrete wall that separated it from Israel, as well as two partial destructions.

02:31 Once the border had been opened, Hamas fighters quickly crossed it on all-terrain vehicles

02:37 and on small motorcycles.

02:41 Images analysed by Le Monde showed at least a dozen commando groups entering Israeli territory

02:46 before the sun had fully risen.

02:54 Less than an hour later, they launched simultaneous assaults on six military camps, six residential

03:01 areas and a festival site.

03:08 At least six of the IDF's permanent military installations were attacked at the same time,

03:14 between 6.30am and 8.30am.

03:18 At the Erez crossing, the Nahal Oz base, the base near the Biri Kibbutz, the Sufa base,

03:28 the Reem base and a facility near the Kibbutz, Kerem Shalom, armed with grenades, rocket

03:36 launches and automatic weapons, Hamas fighters entered the military sites.

03:44 They killed and captured Israeli soldiers, and filmed themselves triumphantly next to

03:50 their bodies.

03:52 At the Nahal Oz base, Hamas used a drone to drop explosives on groups of soldiers and

03:59 tanks.

04:02 Israeli soldiers were taken by surprise.

04:07 At the Sufa base, images showed a lifeless soldier dressed only in his underwear, flak

04:12 jacket and helmet.

04:16 His body lay in front of the door of a dormitory, where at least four other men appeared to

04:21 be dead.

04:24 One of them was still in his pyjamas.

04:27 IDF soldiers may also have been confused by some of the Hamas fighters' uniforms.

04:36 They wore fatigues similar to those worn by the IDF.

04:41 Even their helmets were topped with the same headgear as Israeli soldiers.

04:49 Israeli troops were taken prisoner at the Erez crossing.

04:54 In these images authenticated by Le Monde, at least three men in shorts and with bare

04:59 feet were captured and beaten before being taken away by Hamas.

05:11 As these military sites were being attacked, other Hamas commandos headed for 5 Kibbutzim

05:18 and an Israeli town, all within 7 kilometres of the Gaza border.

05:26 It was at 6.55am at Biri when the first Hamas fighters arrived on foot.

05:33 Going house by house, for almost four hours the commandos massacred Israeli civilians.

05:44 Filmed via CCTV, the first group can be seen collecting the belongings of the dead.

05:51 Later at 10.38am, the same camera filmed another group of two fighters as they arrived at the

05:57 scene in a white vehicle.

05:59 They were armed and dressed as civilians.

06:02 They loaded two lifeless civilians into their vehicle, before disappearing from the frame.

06:13 Three kilometres north, in the Nirim Kibbutz, the militants filmed themselves advancing

06:18 through civilian houses and firing through their windows.

06:23 It was around 8.30am.

06:25 These attacks on civilians only stopped once Hamas fighters decided to leave the Kibbutz,

06:32 or once the IDF arrived on scene.

06:43 Hamas militants likely trained to be able to carry out its operation.

06:48 Training sessions were filmed and published across Hamas propaganda channels.

06:54 One video showed Hamas militiamen practising blowing up a border gate that was very similar

06:59 to the one on the border with Israel.

07:05 One video showed a soldier placing explosives on the dummy fence, before setting it off.

07:13 Another clip showed Hamas fighters, on motorbikes and on foot, crossing the partly destroyed

07:18 barrier.

07:22 These moments were recreated for real on Saturday, October 7th.

07:30 Hamas fighters also trained to fly motorised paragliders, where the pilot is driven by

07:35 a propeller motor in the back.

07:40 They also put this into practice on October 7th.

07:47 A map showing the Hamas fighters' route was found on the body of one of the group's

07:51 attackers who was killed.

07:53 Other small leaflets were also found on his body.

07:57 They showed the IDF's different types of armoured vehicles, and their strengths and

08:02 weaknesses.

08:03 They detailed how to target them, depending on the weaponry available.

08:08 Hamas claimed that nearly 50 sites were attacked by 1,200 of its fighters.

08:14 Meanwhile, the IDF announced it has recovered the bodies of around 1,500 Hamas fighters

08:20 on its territory.

08:23 Israel says more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers have been killed since October

08:29 7th.

08:30 Israel has relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Saturday's attack, according

08:36 to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

08:39 As of October 24th, over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed.

08:45 For more UN videos visit: www.un.org/webcast

08:51 Thanks for watching!

Recommandations