The publication of an updated report on October 7 should remind “useful fools” who march in anti-Israel demonstrations that the “root cause” of the Gaza war was Hamas, the historian who chaired the parliamentary commission into atrocities has said.
The updated October 7 Parliamentary Commission report, published in full online today, details the horrors of the day, including exclusive testimonies from British survivors, a comprehensive mapping of the attacks and evidence of the meticulous planning behind them.
Featuring testimonies from survivors, accounts from first responders and eyewitnesses, photo and video evidence, military releases and legal documents, it is intended as a permanent “record of the facts” of October 7 and will serve as an “enduring resource for governments, educators, and civil society, safeguarding the truth against denialism and distortion,” its authors say.
Published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on UK-Israel relations, the parliamentary commission was chaired by the historian Lord Roberts.
Introducing the 340-page report, he said: “Whilst Iran’s proxies, Hamas, have been undoubtedly weakened as a result of their disgraceful decision to launch an all-out assault against Israeli citizens, the need to preserve facts and remind the useful fools that spend every weekend marching to the tune of terrorist apologism that the root cause of all of this were their heroes Hamas.
“This report, and the knowledge we now have about Anat Ron-Kendall as the UK’s only survivor of the attacks, who lives in the UK, must be preserved, must be heard, and must be learned from, if we are to stand any chance of helping to rebuild the lives of those impacted across the entire Middle East.”
One, chapter entitled “Conflict-related sexual violence”, states: “On 7 October 2023, members of Palestinian armed groups crossed the Israeli border and committed acts of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV).
"These include acts of rape, gang rape, forced mutilation, sexualised torture, forced nudity, and posting sexualised images of victims on social media without consent.”
The report includes details of gang rapes, individual rapes and assaults and cases of “extreme degrees” of sexual mutilation.
In line with previous findings elsewhere, including by the UN’s special representative on sexual violence, Pramila Patten, the report states that the desecration of corpses on the day was “widespread”, including mutilation and the booby trapping of bodies with grenades.
Also featured is a 6-page memo found inside a Gaza tunnel, dated August 24, 2022, that explicitly outlines instructions to Hamas terrorists – such as the psychological dimension of the attack through massacres that would be documented and broadcast in real time to instil terror amongst the Israeli public.
Approximately 7,000 terrorists breached the Gaza border in 119 different locations to take part in the large-scale, coordinated assault on 55 distinct sites in Israel.
The massacres left 1,182 dead, including 18 UK citizens, amounting “to one of the worst terror outrages in the annals of history” and the “largest number of UK deaths from a terror attack in the Middle East, and the second highest globally after 9/11,” the report added.
In total, citizens from 44 nations were either killed or taken hostage by Hamas and other groups, and civilians accounted for 73 per cent of the total victims. “The victims were overwhelmingly Jewish Israelis, but the attackers showed no mercy and slaughtered Israeli Arabs and Bedouins without hesitation,” the report notes.
The most represented age group among victims was 18-30, largely due to the attack on the Nova music festival, which accounted for 375 victims.
The oldest person killed was Moshe Ridler, a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor, who died when Hamas fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the door of his safe room, while the youngest was newborn Naama Abu Rashed, who suffered a gunshot wound while still in his mother’s womb and died 14 hours after doctors performed an emergency delivery.
The report further outlines how Gaza-based media outlets and individual journalists operate under Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad influence, with some directly involved in or documenting the attacks. It highlights the dual-use role of media in Hamas’s operational strategy, the report claims.
Lord Roberts said the report serves as a “permanent memorial and enduring resource for governments, educators, and civil society in order to safeguard the truth against denialism and distortion.”
To compile the report, Roberts was supported by a panel of UK parliamentarians who heard from those directly impacted by the attack, including family members of victims and hostages who provided testimony and evidence, academics and military experts. The report also draws on primary footage from GoPro cameras worn by Hamas terrorists and CCTV footage.
The report is available to view online here.
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