In the early morning hours of Saturday, October 7, the world woke up to news about the Palestinian resistance storming areas within the occupied territories. No one really knew what was happening until media channels and outlets reported that militants had taken control of the Beit Hanoun crossing, the only crossing through which Gazans could enter the rest of the occupied territories.
Information quickly appeared on social media reporting that the wall that Israel built around the Gaza Strip to keep its population of more than 2.3 million people in permanent prison had been breached. Then came pictures and videos of the breached wall showing a bulldozer demolishing the wall, and the entry of many Gazans into the occupied settlements.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, Muhammad Al-Deif, came out to announce the start of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, in response to the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people.
They Are All Victims of Hamas, According to the Israeli Narrative
Al-Qassam Brigades launched a surprise attack on Israeli settlements and military sites after breaching the border points between Gaza and the occupied territories. Israeli and Western media reports immediately spread about the number of Israelis killed in the Qassam attack, and the number was gradually announced, starting at about 200 and then 300 until it reached between 1,300 and 1,400. The common description was, “civilian settlers against whom Hamas committed massacres.”
In response, Israel launched an unprecedentedly violent attack on the Gaza Strip that has so far killed more than 8,000 Palestinians, including more than 3,500 children, displaced more than half of Gaza's population, and destroyed much of the Strip's civilian infrastructure.
For example, “The Times of Israel” said in its reports that the Qassam’s surprise operation caused “a massacre committed by Hamas. They slaughtered more than 1,400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and kidnapped at least 224 people to the Gaza Strip.” While the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace reported that the Al-Qassam attack resulted in the deaths of 1,300 civilians and the captivation of 150 hostages.
On the other hand, media outlets emphasized that the Al-Qassam attack caused “brutal massacres that claimed the lives of at least 1,400 Israeli civilians, including entire families, women, children, infants, and the elderly, and the kidnapping of about 200 other civilians, in events that shocked the world.”
Moreover, members of the Israeli army said that "children were found slaughtered in Israeli kibbutzim, amid terror from Hamas attacks near the border." “I’ve never seen anything like this in my career, never in 40 years of service this something I never imagined,” Maj. Gen. Itai Veruv told CNN on Tuesday, just a few hours after Israeli troops secured the kibbutz from Hamas assailants.
CNN explains that the Israeli army was moving from house to house in the Kfar Azza area, "Collecting the dead in body bags and loading them onto a truck.” It quoted the Israeli army as saying, “women, children, toddlers and elderly were “brutally butchered in an ISIS way of action.”
Tal Heinrich, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that infants and young children were found "headless" in Kfar Azza. The story published by the Israeli and Western media shows that the attack by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades originally occurred against civilians. These reports did not reveal at the time that the vast majority of the Israelis who were killed during Hamas’ incursion into the occupied territories were either soldiers or civilians who were killed during weapons clashes in the heart of the battles.
These reports also did not differentiate between the total number of soldiers killed, how they were killed, and what happened with civilians, making it appear as if the matter was planned to eliminate civilians in Israeli settlements. Israeli websites began announcing on a daily basis the names of the dead Israelis and the identities of many of them.
Misbar followed the spread of these reports and waited for Israeli sources to announce more names of the Israelis who were killed on October 7, until they revealed 933 names so far out of a total of 1,400 or 1,300 dead, after nearly three weeks had passed since the Al-Aqsa Flood operation. The place and cause of death for all of them is not revealed, but the narrative unanimously agrees that these were “victims” of Hamas gunfire.
On the other hand, Misbar noted the escalation of reports and testimonies in the Israeli media and on Hebrew-speaking social media, which tell stories of the Israeli army shooting at the Israelis themselves.
“They Eliminated Everyone, Including the Hostages.”
On October 23, The Electronic Intifada website published a detailed interview with Yasmin Porat, an Israeli settler from Kibbutz Beeri, northeast of Gaza, in which she describes how she was held hostage by Palestinian resistance militants. According to her account, resistance members treated her and the other hostages “humanely,” perhaps believing that this would allow them to return safely to Gaza with the Israeli prisoners in tow. But when the Israeli soldiers arrived, “they liquidated everyone, including the hostages. There was a very intense exchange of fire,” she described.
Porat’s interview with The Electronic Intifada website was not the only one, as she told the Israeli channel "Kan," in another interview, that Israelis were killed in the violent counterattack launched by the Israeli security forces, but she says that she and other captured civilians were treated well by the Hamas militants.
Porat was at the famous "Nova" concert when the Hamas attack began with missiles, gliders and drones. She and her partner, Tal Katz, fled by car to Kibbutz Be'eri, where many of the events she described in her media interviews took place.
According to Porat, resistance members stormed the house where she and her partner were sheltering by shooting at the door lock, but no further shooting occurred. “They gave us something to drink every now and then. When they saw that we were nervous, they calmed us down. It was very scary, but no one treated us violently. Fortunately, nothing like what I heard in the media happened to me.”
“They were very humane towards us,” Porat said in her interview with Hebrew Channel 12. She reported that one of the Palestinian fighters who spoke Hebrew told her: “Look at me carefully, we will not kill you. We want to take you to Gaza. We will not kill you. So be calm, you will not die.”
Porat adds in her interviews that the Israeli forces announced their arrival with a barrage of bullets, surprising the Israeli fighters and prisoners. “We were outside and suddenly; a barrage of bullets was fired at us from the Israeli unit. We all started running for shelter.”
Porat explained that she surrendered to the Israeli soldiers half an hour after the fierce battle that included “tens, hundreds, and thousands of bullets and mortar shells flying in the air,” as she put it, and that one of the Palestinian fighters, a commander, decided to surrender and in fact use her as a human shield, as she stated.
“He started taking his jacket off,” Porat recalled to Kan broadcaster Aryeh Golan. “He called me and started leaving the house with me under fire. At that time, I shouted to the Israeli commandos to stop shooting.”
She added that they actually stopped shooting after that, but she saw settlers outside on the grass. “There were five or six hostages lying on the ground outside. Just like sheep being slaughtered.”
When the broadcaster asked her: “Did the terrorists shoot them?” “No, they were killed in the crossfire,” Porat replied. He responded with another question: “So maybe our forces opened fire on them?” She replied: “Without a doubt. They eliminated everyone, including the hostages, because there was a heavy exchange of fire.”
After an intense exchange of fire, Porat said that two shells were fired from a tank at a house she described as “small, not large.” Porat and the fighter who captured her, who was captured by Israeli forces, survived. But according to Porat, almost everyone in the settlement was killed, wounded, went missing, or was transferred to Gaza.
Israeli Military: At Least 112 Be’Eri Residents Were Killed
Porat's testimonies are consistent with evidence provided by Israeli soldiers, who described how the Israeli army fired tank shells at buildings where Qassam Brigades fighters and their hostages were hiding. On October 11, The Guardian's correspondent in Israel, Quique Kierszenbaum, wrote about their tour of the Be'eri settlement, a tour organized by the Israeli Forces propaganda unit.
“Building after building has been destroyed, whether in the Hamas assault or in the fighting that followed, nearby trees splintered and walls reduced to concrete rubble from where Israeli tanks blasted the Hamas militants where they were hiding. Floors collapsed on floors. Roof beams were tangled and exposed like rib cages” Kierszenbaum wrote.
In another article published by Haaretz newspaper only in Hebrew, Nir Hasson and Eden Solomon conducted an interview with the deputy commander of an armored reserve battalion. In the interview, he described how he and his tank unit “fought inside the kibbutz, house to house, with tanks.” “We had no choice,” he concludes.
In the military commander’s narration of the events in the first days of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, specifically on the night of Monday, October 9, he said that the field commanders made what he described as “difficult decisions,” which included bombing homes on their residents “in order to eliminate the terrorists despite the presence of hostages.” According to his description, the price was high, “at least 112 people from the Be’eri people were killed.”
While it may be understandable that the captives were killed in the intense exchange of fire, this account seems to indicate that the decision to attack the settlement and all those within it was made in the context of clear military calculations.
Damage Beyond the Capabilities of the Resistance’s Weapons
Pictures and videos taken after the fighting inside the settlements showed the damage caused by the Israeli bombing on residential buildings. Some houses were charred and resembled the effects of Israeli tank and artillery attacks on the Gaza Strip. As a witness told the Haaretz, Israeli army commanders ordered “the bombing of homes on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.”
A video clip posted by an account on a Telegram channel affiliated with the Israeli South Responders program showed the bodies of Israelis found under the rubble of a house destroyed by a powerful explosion that appeared to have been most likely caused by a tank shell.
Israeli security forces also opened fire on Israelis fleeing the clashes, thinking they were Al-Qassam gunmen. Danielle Rachel, a resident of Ashkelon, described that she was almost killed after escaping from the Nova Music Festival when gunmen from Gaza attacked it, saying, “When we arrived at the roundabout in the kibbutz, we saw Israeli security forces.” Rachel added, “We lowered our heads because we automatically knew that they would be suspicious.” "We were in a small abandoned car from the same direction the terrorists were coming from. Our forces started shooting at us." She confirmed, "When our forces opened fire on us, our windows were shattered." Before they shouted in Hebrew, “We are Israelis,” then the shooting stopped, and they were taken to a safe place.
Not everyone had it as easy as Rachel. An electric company employee named Adi Ohana was shot dead by Israeli police near his home after they mistook him for a Palestinian fighter. His niece explained to Hebrew media that he was "an innocent man who was killed in the most negligent way."
Al-Qassam Planned the Operation and Knew Israel’s Weaknesses
Investigations revealed that using drones, Qassam operatives destroyed key observation and communications towers along the border with Gaza, imposing wide blind spots on the Israeli Forces. Some Israeli military officials say Hamas used explosives and tractors to blow up border checkpoints, allowing nearly 200 attackers to pour in in the first wave and nearly 1,800 more later that day.
Aboard motorcycles and small trucks, the attackers stormed the occupied territories, overrunning at least eight military bases, in addition to residential communities in which settlers were killed, some of whom were carrying weapons during the attack.
On October 13, The New York Times published an article providing various details about the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, based on some documents found, videos of the attack, and interviews with Israeli security officials.
The newspaper revealed in its report that the documents confirm the Qassam operatives’ “astonishingly sophisticated understanding of how the Israeli army operates,” where certain units are stationed, and even the time it will take for reinforcements to arrive. And that through "careful planning and extraordinary awareness of Israel's secrets and weaknesses, Hamas and its allies were able to invade Israel's front with Gaza." What makes it clear is that the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation plan included an attack on military and security installations.
Israeli Airstrikes on Settlements
A separate report published in Haaretz indicated that the Israeli army “had to request an air strike” against its facilities inside the Erez crossing (Beit Hanoun checkpoint) on the Gaza Strip border “in order to repel the terrorists,” who had taken control of the area. That base was full of officers and soldiers of the Israeli Civil Administration at that time.
By 10:30 a.m. on October 7, according to an account provided by the military to the Mako news site, “most of the resistance forces from the first attack wave had already left the area for Gaza.” But with the rapid collapse of the Israeli Forces’ Gaza Division, low-ranking fighters and some civilians not necessarily under Hamas's command flowed freely into the occupied territories.
At this point, according to the army, there were two squadrons of Israeli Apache helicopters, numbering eight, in the air, and “there was almost no intelligence to help make critical decisions,” the army said. The squadrons did not reach full strength until noon.
As a result of the chaos caused on the ground by the infiltration of resistance militants from Gaza, a state of confusion prevailed among the pilots of those helicopters, which led to them firing bullets and missiles. “The Apache pilots testified that they fired a huge amount of ammunition and emptied the stomachs of the helicopters in minutes. They returned to their bases and repeated their air strikes. Realizing that it would not really help them," McCue said.
Apache helicopters appeared to focus on vehicles returning to Gaza from the Nova Music Festival, attacking the vehicles with the apparent knowledge that Israeli prisoners might be inside. They also shot unarmed people who were getting out of cars or walking in the fields on the outskirts of Gaza.
In an interview with the Israeli news site Mako, one of those Apache pilots spoke of the “twisted dilemma” of shooting at people and cars returning to Gaza. He explained that he knew that many of those vehicles may have contained Israeli prisoners. But he chose to shoot anyway. “I pick targets like this and tell myself that the chance of the hostages being shot here is also low,” the pilot said. However, he admitted that his judgment "was not 100 percent correct."
In another report by the Mako news site, an Apache commander, Lieutenant Colonel E, who did not reveal his full name, said, “I understand that we have to shoot here and quickly. I never thought I would shoot people in our territory.” He described the blur of confusion at the time, saying, "I found myself in a dilemma about what to shoot at, because there were so many targets."
A report on the Apache swarms published by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth indicated that “the pilots realized that there is enormous difficulty in distinguishing within the outposts and occupied settlements between who is a ‘terrorist’ and who is an Israeli soldier or civilian... The rate of fire was enormous at first and exceeded the numbers.” "Terrorists," and only at a certain point pilots began to slow down attacks and choose targets more carefully.
A squadron commander explained to Mako how he almost attacked the home of an Israeli family occupied by resistance fighters and ended up firing artillery shells next to it. “Our forces did not have time to reach this settlement yet, and they had already run out of missiles there, which are the most accurate weapon,” the pilot recalled.
Ultimately, Israeli helicopter pilots blamed Hamas's tactics for their inability to distinguish between resistance members, Israeli Forces soldiers, and Israeli non-combatants. Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper claimed that the Hamas army deliberately made it difficult for helicopter pilots and drone operators.
According to the Israeli newspaper, “It has become clear that the invading forces were asked in recent briefings to slowly enter inside the settlements and outposts, and not to run under any circumstances, in order to deceive the pilots that they are Israeli. This deception succeeded for a long time, until they realized The Apache pilots said they had to bypass all restrictions. At approximately 9:00 a.m., some of them began using the guns on their own, without obtaining permission from their superiors."
Thus, without any intelligence or ability to distinguish between Palestinians and Israelis, the pilots angrily fired cannons and missiles at the Israeli areas.
“Hamas Atrocities” Israel Published Pictures and Later Retracted Them
Following the events of October 7, the South Responders Telegram account posted a photo showing a car filled with charred corpses at the entrance to Kibbutz Be'eri. The Israeli government portrayed these victims as Israeli victims of "Hamas' sadistic violence." However, the melted steel body, the collapsed roof of the car, and the completely burned bodies inside indicate that the car was targeted with an incendiary missile that the resistance factions do not have.
On October 26, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, repeated the description used by Yoav Gallant and said that Israel was "fighting animals," before pulling out a piece of paper with a QR on it that said, "Scan to see the atrocities of Hamas." When Misbar’s team scanned the code that evening, we found a Google Drive file with eight grisly photos of burned bodies and blackened body parts, one of which showed a pile of completely charred men's bodies piled in a trash can.
However, according to photos and clips published by response teams and Israeli medical and governmental bodies, it appeared that the Israelis who were killed during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood had been collected in individual body bags and transported to the morgues, which raised doubts about the fact that Israeli rescuers and paramedics had left the bodies of the Israelis shown in those photos.
At the same time, numerous videos recorded by Israeli soldiers and settlers showed them desecrating the bodies of Palestinian resistance militants killed by security forces, stripping them naked, urinating on them, and mutilating their bodies. Throwing their bodies in the trash appears to be part of a de facto policy of mistreatment of corpses.
Just over twelve hours after Ambassador Erdan promoted the images as “Hamas atrocities,” the Google Drive file contained only one short video clip. Among the pictures that mysteriously disappeared was a picture of a garbage container filled with burned corpses. Today, anyone can open a file and see that it has been completely emptied of its content, without offering any explanation.
Unsubstantiated Israeli Misinformation About the Dead and Children
The absence of Israeli evidence regarding allegations of Hamas committing massacres against civilians and accounts of the killing of children and the rape and torture of women led to a massive spread of misleading information, which was used by many Israeli and Western media outlets and figures.
Such as the allegations of “the beheading of Israeli children and the sexual assault of hostages by Hamas members,” after the movement’s attack on the Gaza Strip, which came while Nicole Zedek, a reporter for the Tel Aviv-based i24 news channel, said during a live broadcast that she spoke to Israeli soldiers who saw beheaded children.
Misbar investigated the viral claim as it was propagated by international media channels, especially in the United States. However, it is worth noting that the viral claim was not circulated in Israeli media, which is doubtful. If such news were true, it would have widely spread in prominent Israeli channels, such as the 12, 13, and 11 channels, as well as in well-known Hebrew newspapers.
Approximately four hours after the news disseminated, the Anadolu Agency asked the Israeli army about the reality of beheaded babies. The spokesman stated the he did not know any information regarding that incident, and this contradicts the claims made by the i24 News channel correspondent, Nicole Zedek, who was part of reporters that conducted a tour in Kfar Aza settlement accompanied by Israeli soldiers.
The absence of evidence about the detention of children led to the spread of a video clip that Israeli media and accounts claimed showed five Israeli children being held hostage by Hamas in chicken cages , after they were captured by Hamas fighters at the beginning of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Misbar investigated the clip and confirmed that it did not depict Israeli children held hostage by Hamas after the Al-Aqsa Flood, as it was published via an account on the TikTok application days before the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood. The Video was taken by a Palestinian man playing with his relatives.
Major media organizations, including The Times of Britain, faced criticism for their coverage of "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood," particularly for the lack of verified images depicting injured children in the conflict. In a notable instance, The Times, both in its print and digital editions, featured a photograph alongside an article titled "Israel publishes photos of mutilated children." However, the image in question, rather than showing Israeli victims, actually depicted children from the Gaza Strip who had been wounded in Israeli airstrikes. This has raised concerns about the accuracy and sourcing of images used in conflict reporting.
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