Tel Aviv [Israel], October 23 : The terrorist group Hamas should not be called fighters but "wild terrorists" for giving orders to slaughter and burn civilians, Israel Defence Forces spokesperson Major General Michael Edelstein said on Monday.
Speaking at a press conference in Tel Aviv, Edelstein made these remarks while revealing raw and unedited visuals gathered by IDF personnel during the war from Hamas body cameras GoPro CCTV, Hamas smartphones and local phones.
The body-cam footage from the October 7 massacre started by Hamas in Israel showed disturbing visuals of Hamas terrorists opening fire on civilians and their vehicles.
An instruction manual was also found on the bodies of Hamas terrorists after the massacre, detailing the offensive plans of the organisation.
"Well, these images were taken from cameras that were carried by the terrorists; some of them we captured, and others were from Israeli citizens, from their mobiles, from dashboard cameras...I can say that we showed only some of the camera bits that we have...from those cameras, and we are still getting more and more evidence, and it will take us some time to collect," the IDF spokesperson said.
"It is not their fighters...Those are wild terrorists...not terrorists. They can give orders to slaughter, to burn citizens, not military personnel...simple citizens. They were looking for families in some of the Kibbutz and they simply decided to burn families within their homes. They took hostages...For example, in Kibbutz Be'ri, they were aiming to take dozens of three-year-olds to Gaza," he added.
On the comparison made between Hamas attacks and Israel's counteroffensive, he said, "In recent days, from time to time, the forces that are fighting it are so full...I was shocked...I cannot understand such comparisons. I would like to say to some of the channels that they are irresponsible. You can see how wild those people are, so you should be responsible."
He further underlined how there were orders to Hamas terrorists on how many to kill and to take hostages.
"And of their capabilities, if you ask about, so forth we are still looking for evidence...but orders were there, orders were there to kill, how many to kill, how many to take as hostages...all was written in order for them," he said during the press conference.
"Back in 2013 and 2014, at that time we faced over 30 terror tunnels they tried to penetrate through into Israel, nothing like this but a war. And, now they are aiming at civilians...I never thought why terrorists took citizens," he added.
Israel's former prime minister Naftali Bennett said recently that he bears the responsibility for the significant failures that paved the way for the devastating Hamas attack on October 7, The Times of Israel reported.
In an interview with Radio 103FM, he stated, "Of course I also bear responsibility. I served as prime minister for 12 months. There were things that I can't elaborate on, that I didn't have time to do that could have dramatically changed the situation, and then the government fell."
Bennett served as prime minister from June 2021 to June 2022.
"Do I bear responsibility? Certainly," he acknowledged his responsibility but noted that he never allowed the transfer of funds from Qatar to Hamas during his tenure, a policy initiated under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Bennett is the most recent in a series of senior current and former officials who have taken responsibility for the failures that contributed to the unexpected Hamas assault. During this attack, approximately 2,500 individuals, including militants, breached the border and carried out violent actions in southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of about 1,400 people, the majority of whom were civilians. Additionally, they took at least 222 individuals hostage and transported them to Gaza, according to Times of Israel.
Several other senior officials, including Israel Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lt Gen Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have also taken responsibility for the failures that led to the Hamas assault. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not admitted culpability.
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