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I just watched the roughly 45-minute footage of October 7th at a private screening in NYC. Here are my immediate thoughts minutes after watching it. 🧵 

The video is a compilation of mainly Hamas GoPro cameras/cellphones carried by hundreds of the terrorists, but it also includes Israeli CCTV, car dash cams, traffic cams, first responder cell videos to piece together before, during, and after single events of the massacre. 

The video starts w/ Hamas terrorists riding in the back of trucks armed with AK-47s, RPGs, & a few heavy machine guns, through a cut in the border wall. The terrorists all screaming with joy, yelling over & over “Allahu Akbar!” More trucks & motorcycles into Israel behind them. 

First scene is on a hwy in Southern Israel from a vehicle dash cam, over 10 terrorists spread out, shooting down cars, bullets come through the glass, then to Hamas GoPro engaging the car, they approach & shoot the man & woman in the car at close range to ensure they were dead. 

Next a Kibbutz entrance gate CCTV, Hamas terrorist walk up to the gate hoping to sneak in but closed, they walk off camera. Civilian car approaches the gate which starts to open. The terrorist fire at their windows at close range, make sure all dead, and walk into the Kibbutz. 

A home CCTV footage in the Kibbutz, a father in his underwear (looks to have just woken) frantically carrying his two sons, running, boys also in underwear (both appear between 8-12 like my son). Another camera shows them leave the house & enter a shelter in their backyard. 

Seconds later a Hamas approaches the shelter the father and sons entered, looks in, and then throws a grenade into it. The father falls out of the shelter dead, clearly having attempted to stand between his sons and the terrorist. 

The boys are pulled out of the shelter over their dead father’s body by a terrorist. They are taken back into the house, put on the couch in the house. Now sounds vividly of their moans of pain, blood from their injuries covering them, the boys talking to each other “Dad is dead” 

The older brother trying to comfort the younger, covered in blood now. “Can you see out of your eye? No? Not at all?” “No I can’t see anything.” The terrorist next to them going through their fridge picking out the water and coke to drink. 

CCTV footage in a kindergarten. A lone teacher hiding in a room, trying to use kid nap pads to hide. Hamas terrorists enter, searching rooms, looks into her room & fires at her. Terrorist enter the room, makes sure she is dead, puts her on his shoulder and carries her away. 

Scenes of the Nova music festival. Young kids dancing with Hamas paragliders in the distance. Gunfire. Then teenagers running in chaos. First in cars, then hundreds abandoning their cars and running in mass into an open field as Hamas terrorist show up. 

Hamas footage of their vehicles arriving to the festival, terrorists jumping out to all fire at the teenagers running through the field. One of the Hamas heavy machine guns mounted in the back of a pickup opens fires. 

Then Hamas entering the festival. Firing wildly into the porta johns. Footage of petrified Israeli teenagers hiding in those porta johns. Then videos of the bodies and blood in the porta johns. 

Tens of Israeli teenagers hiding in a large dumpster of black trash bags. A few seconds later a first responder video of just dead bodies in the dumpster. 

First responders arriving to the festival, calling out as they get to a food/bar tent “I have 1 dead, 2..3,4,5 dead” “is anyone alive?” “please let me know if you are alive,” only to then look over the bar counter to see tens of civilians bodies laying on top of each other. 

Rape & targeting of the young women at the festival. 1st a video of a group of more than 5 teenage girls scared, shaking huddled together in a tent. Hamas terrorist enters the tent. All girls handcuffed walked out of the tent now all bloodied faces. Some put in different vehicles 

One girl from the original huddle, from the line walked out, separated and put into a jeep. Later same girl moved, pants covered in blood just around anus to front of pants. More photos of dead teenage women laying in the field of the festival, no pants, legs appear broken. 

Beheadings. One scene shows Hamas in a Kibbutz screaming at a dead elderly Israeli man, stepping on his head and then asking for the garden hoe nearby. The Hamas terrorist strikes at the old mans need repeatedly trying to behead him. 

Later scene a Hamas terrorist takes a knife and quickly severs the head of an IDF soldier, helmet still on his head, and walks off with the soldier’s head leaving his body. Other photos of just heads in a field flattened from some type smashing. 

Many scenes of burned bodies. Bodies frozen in awkward positions in vehicles, on the highways, in their homes and burned to ashy skeletons. It gave me memories of visiting concentration camps of Dachau and seeing the photos of the holocaust. 

From a military lens I saw Hamas fighters with training, leaders giving orders to kill systematically, conserving ammo. Orders “Shot them just once in the head, save your ammo.” I heard their communication back to leaders in Gaza with radios. Also terrorist with no training. 

1 Hamas terrorist used an Israeli woman’s cellphone to call his parents “Father I am in...I just killed 10 jews, their blood is in my hands, thank god, tell mom, your son is killing jews.” The man (dad) and woman (mom) he is talking to just yell & reply “kill, kill, kill.” 

I've seen my share of evil firsthand around the world in wars of the Middle East/Ukraine/etc. I've seen heinous cruelty/dehumanization/mutilations. I've looked evil men in the eye. But I've never seen so many evil men (hundreds, thousands) show such joy in committing their acts. 

I understand now why this video must be selectively shown. You can't watch it without be in some way traumatized. I will never forget the children. Photo after photo of dead children in their PJs. Mickey Mouse, Stitch (my daughter loves at the moment). Covered in blood. Dead. 

I hated having to watch the video. You can’t unsee the evil shown in it. No one should want to see it, but the horrors of that day should never be forgotten. Never rationalized away. The phrase in my head the whole time “Never Again” from the past, but I was watching it again.