Official screenings of 47 minutes of footage showing graphic atrocities committed during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel are being held in Los Angeles and New York this week. The footage is being shared by the Israel Defense Forces, the national military of Israel.
Invitees include select members of the press and the film industry. The screening has been labeled, “Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre.”
The footage is known to be violent, including video of murder, beheadings and rapes of Jewish people, according to media reports. Much of it was filmed by Hamas terrorists during their attack on Israel. The American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League are helping to organize the screenings.
Guy Nattiv, who directed the Golda Meir biopic “Golda” released earlier this year, shared a redacted image of the invitation on social media Sunday. He captioned his post, “Because the world needs to know. #neveragainisnow 💔”
While inviting in some members of the media to see the footage, the Israeli government recently denied a press credential to a reporter for Rolling Stone, saying that the often left-wing magazine is “not a news organization.” The magazine has a deep history of political reporting, going back more than 50 years. It is also a sister publication owned by Penske Media with several Hollywood trades.
The footage was first shown to a small group of international journalists outside Israel on Oct. 27. At that time, the country had no intention of releasing the footage publicly out of respect for the victims and their families.
For Israeli leaders, the primary motivation to share the footage is to respond to international criticism of its military’s actions in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7. The 140.9 square mile region is currently experiencing a massive humanitarian crisis that has drawn condemnation from world leaders and citizens alike.
The footage depicts members of Hamas as they shoot Israeli families and individuals in their homes and set the homes they can’t infiltrate on fire. Other scenes show someone from Hamas standing on a man as he continues to shoot him; another shows the slow decapitation by garden hoe of a Thai worker.
The footage also spares no one. Children and adults are assaulted and attacked, and at one point a young boy asks, “Why am I alive? Why am I alive?” as militants from Hamas go through his refrigerator. His father had been killed by a grenade moments before.
The massacre at the Nova music festival is also in the film, including a shot of bodies in white body bags stacked alongside one another, as well as clips of Hamas firing into portable toilets and bomb shelters where Israelis were hiding.
