October 7 Documentary by Richard Sanders
Owen Jones interviews journalist Richard Sanders
Owen Jones: “A new Al-Jazeera documentary finally offers the most definitive story of that fateful day - and I talk through the shocking claims of real atrocities and false claims with journalist Richard Sanders.” (link)
Tim: I added time markers below the video.
Watch the documentary here: https://i-unit.io/October7.
6:38 What's the purpose of studying this?
Because of everything that has happened since.
It’s being used as justification and will reverberate for decades to come.
7:24 Whenever Israel is challenged about the high death tolls, they fall back on “babies” and “rapes”.1
Similar claims were made of Native Americans and Indian Mutiny
Throughout history, claims regarding babies and rapes are used to dehumanize the enemy.
9:34 Hamas “succeeded” beyond their expectations and then didn’t have a strategy.
10:23 Hamas was surprised by their own success,2 as everyone is. The collapse of Israel was astonishing.3
11:49 “Success” exposed Hamas's limitations as a military movement.4
Owen did a response to the Israeli video gathered from GoPro cameras that showed how varied Hamas responses were.
13:22 Hamas hadn't anticipated the music festival.
Hamas tended to shoot anything that moved, but once they had someone under their control they would take them hostage.
Overall, Hamas behavior was cavalier with regard to civilian life.
14:35 There were certain claims that were false - beheaded babies, repeated by Biden.
15:16 As the Palestinian death total rose, any qualms people might have were repressed with references to "beheaded babies”.
17:00 The false beheaded babies claim should have established a precedent that Israeli officials and ZAKA were not to be trusted, but that lesson was not applied to the sexual violence claims.
18:17 The leader of ZAKA 5 that were repeated by Secretary of State Blinken.
20:43 Netanyahu tells ZAKA that they are part of the information war.
29:50 UN report: Pramila Patten.
30:15 There are no images to support the claim of half naked women tied up.
30:35 It is strange that there are only 2 witnesses when thousands survived.
31:40 Israel might be killing more civilians but, Hamas's killing is depicted as "depraved."
34:36 The Hannibal Directive: Israel killed its own civilians to prevent them from being taken captive.6
Footnotes:
In the documentary (34:26):
“This is something that monsters do not humans.”
Hamas Fighters and others committed crimes on October 7. The Israeli media however focuses not on the crimes they committed but on crimes they did not.
I'm talking to some of the soldiers and they say what they've witnessed as they've been walking through these different houses these different communities uh babies their heads cut off — that's what they said. No one could expect that it would be like this. The horrors that I'm hearing from these these soldiers. As I as I mentioned earlier about 40 babies at least were were taken out on gurneys. The I units list of the Dead shows no babies were killed in kafar Az —A the kibbutz this report came from. The story was nevertheless picked up by International media and repeated by President Biden. (34:26)
In the documentary (16:16):
.. but the leadership was as surprised as anyone by the Swift collapse of the Israeli military. Anyone who have watched this were surprised. I myself I was totally surprised. How can this happen? Hamas people that have shared their experience of what happened on 7th of October with people I've spoken to suggested they expected a far higher casualty rate and expected that maybe 80 90% of those who set out on the 7th of October would actually die as Martyrs before they return back with hostages into Gaza City. The opposite actually happened — exactly diametrically opposed nearly in terms of only 10 to 15% of those fighters were killed before they made it into Israeli settlements. The resistance was so underwhelming from a Hamas point of view that they had absolute freedom to maneuver (16:16):
The claim of (dehumanizing) atrocities like “babies” and “mass rape” also help to distract from Israel’s military and intelligence collapse.
In the documentary: (20:55)
.. gunmen quickly penetrate civilian communities but their unexpected success exposes the limitations of Hamas as a military force once the gunmen get access to the kbot they really don't seem to know exactly what they're doing where they're going or what they want to achieve they're wandering aimlessly they're shouting to each other they're arguing with each other from the footage here looks like the soldiers clearly come under effective enemy fire they're not doing anything about it yeah this is complete chaos their first priority seems to be taking the ammunition and the weapons off their own wounded there's no attempt of any sort of first aid there's certainly not anything like one would term command and control there's no leaders there (20:55)
In counting “children,” Yossi Landau says you can’t tell the difference between 18 year olds and 20 year old (children):
The list of the Dead shows two 12-year-old twins are killed when police and army stormed the house in Barry but there are no other children. It was a an interview we did with Sky Television from Britain two piles we found them in Berry two piles of 10 children each were tied back to back and burned to death. Now again I mean if we if we look at the the death
figures at there there are only 10 children that died at Betty not children it's but it's 18y old uh so we all together when you look at them and they're burned you don't know exactly the ages so you're talking about 18y old 20 years old and uh you can't you can't you just don't look on the spot um identification to see the ages or or something like that.
It is not the only questionable story that Yossi Landau tells about kibbutz Barry we go further then we see a woman she was lying on the floor a puddle of blood big puddle of blood she was a pregnant woman her stomach was butchered open the baby that was connected to the court was stabbed and she was shot in the back kibbutz Berry has denied this account the story of the pregnant woman reported by ZAKA is not relevant to Barry.
Yossi Landau in assists he witnessed this scene at Barry if you want to see the picture I have the picture of it are you able to share the photographic evidence with us to show you yes where's my phone sorry I will I will not put it in front of the camera that's fine I'll I'll come and look this is the knife they used shot killed but over the H was the that the imagery after the bodies had been cleared away yes this is the baby this is it I'm sorry to be graphic here but I I can't see a baby here you can't see the baby because but this is the picture of the of the mother okay for sure you know we didn't think when we over there we didn't think to to to camera everything we didn't have that this wasn't in our okay all right the photo shows an unidentifiable piece of charred flesh the list of the Dead contains no victim that fits Yossi Landau’s description on October 7th two babies die one is killed when a bullet is fired through a door the other dies following an emergency cesarian after the mother is shot neither is burned or beheaded you being someone who with your own hands with your own eyes with your nose you smelled this what would you say to to that person who who is downplaying what took place here I wouldn't say anything I would ask please give me I he should be together with the Hamas terrorist and he should be killed because he's a part of it. (37:31)
In the documentary 26:35:
The Israeli newspaper yot arut says that at midday the Army issues a version of what is known as the Hannibal directive the Hannibal directive is the result of previous humiliations where Israel handed over hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for the release of one Israeli soldier. On October 7 it seems the Hannibal directive may have been revived and applied even to civilian hostages the Air Force operated during those hours under an instruction to prevent movement from Gaza into Israel and return from Israel into Gaza.
70 vehicles were hit. At least in some of the cases everyone in the vehicle was killed the Israeli military does not deny the report Israeli First Responders released footage of civilians burned in a car the car was struck from above well to me it was inexcusable for a helicopter or any weapon system to be engaging any Target if you don't know what that Target is the footage we're looking at here which I find very disturbing we have a lot of people here making their way back through the breach and the wire back into Gaza now my concern is with this footage we cannot tell whether they're Hamas gunmen or civilians or possibly hostages and I don't believe the helicopter pilot or the machine gun operator will be able to tell Israel's Channel 12 later interviews a kibbutz resident who was abducted she describes coming under Fire from a helicopter (26:35)