Israel Publishes Hamas October 7 Orders to Kill, and Film Murders

Israel published documents Sunday that it says were orders from deceased Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas operatives detailing their plans to commit — and broadcast — mass murder on October 7, 2023.

The documents included a six-page memo that Israel says was written by Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli troops a year ago. It also includes other written orders and communications intercepts by Israeli intelligence.

The New York Times reported on the contents of the documents Saturday:

The [Sinwar] memo, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, calls for fighters to target soldiers and civilian communities — as well as to broadcast the violent acts so as to evoke fear in Israelis and destabilize the country. Commanders then issued similar instructions on Oct. 7, according to hours of previously unreported communications between commanders and subordinates intercepted by Israel during the assault and shared with The Times.

…

When a militant asked if he should confront people on the road, a commander from a Jabaliya battalion referred to as Abu Muath responded in the affirmative: “Kill everyone on the road,” he said. “Kill everyone you encounter.”
…

In the Oct. 7 intercepts, Hamas commanders can be heard urging combatants to film their actions to likewise encourage others to join the fight. “Document the scenes of horror, now, and broadcast them on TV channels to the whole world,” a commander from Gaza City called Abu al-Baraa told operatives in the area of Kibbutz Sa’ad. “Slaughter them. End the children of Israel.”

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center published a more extensive version of the documents on Sunday:

• Al-Sinwar expressed his confidence that the Hamas offensive would lead to a multi-front campaign involving Israeli Arabs, Judea and Samaria, and east Jerusalem, as well as an invasion of Israel’s north by Hezbollah.
• A central part of the document is dedicated to the psychology of the attack, with al-Sinwar’s explicit instructions to document Hamas terrorist operatives indiscriminately slaughtering civilians, trampling soldiers’ bodies, burning residential neighborhoods, and blowing up tanks. The documentation of the atrocities was intended not only for internal use but was planned as a psychological tool to shock and terrorize the Israeli public and send a message of power to “resistance”^[1] operatives in the region.
• The document shows al-Sinwar’s control over all the details of the invasion as it was carried out during the early hours of the attack on October 7, 2023. In ITIC assessment, al-Sinwar was not content with a large-scale terrorist attack or with sending a message but aspired to a complete strategic change on the ground through prolonged physical control of command centers, communication hubs, and IDF bases to leverage Israel’s initial confusion and establish a new reality before the IDF or the international community could respond.

While Hezbollah did join the attack the following day, it was not prepared to invade Israel. Israeli soldiers and civilians also rushed to the front to repulse the Hamas attack, buying time for the country to regroup.

Israel’s foreign ministry also posted an image of the Sinwar memo on X for the world to see: