Denial of atrocities during the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel

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Hamas, other groups, and individuals have stated various levels of denial of atrocities during the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. In particular, they have claimed that Hamas did not intend to systematically kill Israelis, primarily Jewish civilians, and they have attempted to minimize the scale and severity of the October 7 massacres by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

By Hamas

Denial of killing civilians including children

In the days following October 7, 2023, Hamas denied that it had killed any civilians, including children, in its attacks on Israel. Hamas official announcement referring to the event, rejected the "falsehood of the fabricated allegations" promoted by some Western media outlets, which unprofessionally adopt the "Zionist narrative full of lies and slander against our Palestinian people and their resistance, the latest of which was the claim of killing children, beheading them, and targeting civilians”.

Denial of planning to kill civilians

On October 10, Moussa Abu Marzouk in his interview with the Economist refused to admit his group planned to kill civilians.

On October 27, Ghazi Hamad, a spokesperson for the militant organization, was frustrated by BBC Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega, who pressed him on Hamas' denial of atrocities during the attacks. The correspondent asked "You say this was a military operation but the result of it was that hundreds of civilians were killed.", for which Hamas replied "Yes, because that area is very wide, and there are many people there, and there was clashes and confrontation". Bachega pointed out to the Hamas spokesperson, "It’s not confrontation, you invaded houses.", but was replied that "I don’t have details what happened inside. But I can tell you we didn’t have any intention or decision to kill the civilians".

By others

The University of Alberta fired Samantha Pearson, the director of the campus sexual assault centre, after she signed an open letter denying that Hamas raped women during the attacks on October 7. One of the authors of the letter was Sarah Jama, a former member of the NDP who was expelled from the party over her remarks on the October 7 massacres. Jama also denied the reports of rape and murdered babies. Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran said that the residents of Israeli settlements who were killed were not civilians and were armed.

Iman Khatib-Yassin, an Arab Israeli member of the Israeli parliament of the Arab Islamic party Ra'am (United Arab List) was requested to resign by her own party after questioning Hamas atrocities. Khatib-Yassin told the media, "they didn't slaughter babies, at least from what we saw in the footage, and they didn't rape women." However, she added, "if this happened, it is shameful." She said that according to the footage presented in the IDF Spokesperson's Unit's documentary, no babies were slaughtered during the attack, and no women were raped, though she admitted that she hadn't had the opportunity to watch the footage by herself.

On November 19, the Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry published a statement casting doubts on Israeli accounts of the massacre in the Kibbutz Re'im and accusing Israeli military of bombing the rave party guests.

On October 28, Piers Corbyn denied that Hamas had committed atrocities: "It was a lie, a lie, a lie – and the Israeli government admits it was a lie. ... There's no evidence of this stuff. The whole thing was a set up from start to finish to justify an invasion and take the oil. And destroy Palestine and make an Israeli superstate."

Roger Waters, co-founder of the rock band Pink Floyd as the bassist, and a well-known critic of Israel, spoke on a podcast about the conflict and "appeared to deny" the massacres that took place during the attack.

The Yale campus newspaper Yale News reportedly censored a pro-Israel writer's column on Hamas raping women and beheading men, by removing what it called "unsubstantiated claims that Hamas raped women and beheaded men."

Response

Israeli government

See also: Bearing Witness (2023 film)

Israeli officials responded to denial claims by an organized screening of Bearing Witness, compiled video materials from security cameras, mobile phones and body cameras screened to journalists at a military base near Tel Aviv on October 23, 2023. The audience was not allowed to record the 43 minute compilation but one excerpt, approximately one minute long, which was later released to the public. Released still images showed a decapitated soldier, charred human remains (including those of young children), and Islamic State flags found among the militants. An Israeli government spokesperson said that the screening was intended to counter a "Holocaust denial-like phenomenon evolving in real time."

The compilation was later screened also to 70 foreign ambassadors in Israel, and later on November 1 to the Israeli Members of the Parliament.

The Israeli officials continued the effort to show the evidence from October 7 massacre, inviting Canadian media to a November 2nd screening of some of the most sensitive footage collected from the attack on southern Israel, compiled into a 43-minute video that shows the killing or remains of 138 of the more than 1,400 Israelis and foregners killed that day.

Analysis

According to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz publication on November 7, one month after the massacre, the phenomenon of denial of October 7 massacre by Hamas has gained pace on social media.

See also

• Antisemitism during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
• Disinformation in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
• Holocaust denial
• International reactions to the 2023 Israel–Hamas war
• War crimes in the 2023 Israel–Hamas war

External links

• Denial of Oct. 7 atrocities spreads on social media
• ABC: Fights erupt near Museum of Tolerance after screening of film on Hamas

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