|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By: Fern Sidman
In an unflinching and comprehensive effort to document the brutal reality of the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel, the UK-Israel All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has released the first official findings of the 7 October Parliamentary Commission, chaired by Lord Andrew Roberts of Belgravia. As reported by Israel National News, the 318- page report that was published on Wednesday is the culmination of a 12-month fact-finding investigation launched in January 2024, aimed at preserving historical truth and countering efforts to deny or misrepresent the horrific events of that day.
The report offers a meticulously detailed account of one of the most barbaric terror outrages in modern history, resulting in the barbaric slaughter of 1,182 people. Over 4,000 were wounded and 251 taken hostage during the onslaught. Of those killed on that tragic day were 18 British citizens—the largest number of UK nationals killed in a single terror attack in the Middle East and the second highest death toll for UK citizens globally since 9/11.
Introducing the document, Lord Roberts likens the falsification of the events of October 7 to Holocaust denial, saying, “Hamas and its allies, both in the Middle East and equally shamefully in the West, have sought to deny the atrocities, despite the ironic fact that much of the evidence for the massacres derives from film footage from cameras carried by the terrorists themselves.”
The attack resulted in the “largest single massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust and the deadliest per capita terrorist attack, with just over one in every 10,000 Israelis killed and the third overall deadliest terrorist attack in the world to date.”
Writing in an op-ed in The Spectator, the group’s chairman, Lord Andrew Roberts, wrote that the report “comprehensively disproves” the claim that Hamas had attacked only military targets, “showing that the moment that Hamas managed to prevent the IDF from counterattacking, it got down to what it had really set out to do all along: slaughtering Israelis.”
The INN report indicated that the Commission’s findings, shared with Members of Parliament, university leaders, and the general public, lay bare the systematic nature of the violence inflicted during the coordinated assault. Among the most harrowing revelations are widespread acts of torture, mutilation, sexual violence, and corpse desecration.
Civilians were intentionally targeted at 26 distinct locations, with victims ranging from newborn infants to a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor.
73% of those killed were non-combatant civilians, and the largest age group of victims—ages 18–30—suffered mass casualties at the Nova music festival, where 375 people were killed.
Many victims were shot, burned, asphyxiated, or killed by grenades, and corpses were often boobytrapped or taken as hostages post-mortem.
Lord Roberts compared attempts to deny or downplay these atrocities to Holocaust denial, stating: “Hamas and its allies, both in the Middle East and equally shamefully in the West, have sought to deny the atrocities, despite the ironic fact that much of the evidence for the massacres derives from film footage from cameras carried by the terrorists themselves,” as was detailed in the INN report.
He added, “This report has been undertaken to lay down incontrovertible proof—now and for years to come—that nearly 1,200 innocent people were murdered, very often in scenes of sadistic barbarism not seen since the Rape of Nanjing in 1937.”
The report, according to the information provided in the Israel National News report, documents that the invasion was not a spontaneous act but rather the result of years of careful planning, beginning as early as 2018 with the formation of the Joint Room for Palestinian Resistance Factions in Gaza. The attackers—estimated at 7,000 in number—struck 55 different locations, utilizing detailed village maps, hostage-taking manuals, and custom-designed weaponry meant to breach safe rooms.
Notably, the invaders breached the Gaza-Israel border at 119 points, simultaneously launching attacks by land, air, and sea, and bombarding Israel with a massive rocket barrage that put 75% of the country’s population—7.3 million people—under direct threat.
Among the 18 British citizens confirmed killed, the report includes newly identified victims such as 66-year-old dual UK-Israeli citizen Rotem Kalderon, whose body was discovered two weeks later at Kibbutz Be’eri, as was reported by INN. Two additional British citizens were taken hostage—one of whom later died in captivity.
The youngest recorded victim was newborn Naama Abu Rashed, who died 14 hours after an emergency delivery performed due to a gunshot wound sustained in utero, the INN report said. The oldest was Moshe Ridler, aged 92, who survived the Holocaust only to be killed in his safe room by a rocket-propelled grenade.
The report draws on and substantiates findings by UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, detailing shocking evidence of systematic sexual violence. The report on INN explained that Investigators found numerous bodies—primarily women—found fully or partially naked with hands tied and multiple gunshot wounds, confirming mass rape and sexual torture across multiple attack sites.
To ensure accuracy and credibility, the commission gathered testimony from survivors, family members of victims, hostages, military experts, and academics. Additionally, the report relies on extensive video evidence, including GoPro footage from Hamas fighters, as well as CCTV recordings documenting the unfolding attack.
According to a detailed report on the Foundation for Defense of Democracies web site the report collected firsthand accounts of the attacks in each of the 32 communities impacted. The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies is a Washington, DC-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
One victim, identified as Sapir, recalled seeing the attackers brutally rape and murder multiple women while she was hiding under dry grass four miles southwest of the Nova festival site, with one terrorist stabbing a woman in the back every time she flinched during the rape. Another witness described hearing the rapes, saying, “I heard [the male victim’s] voices screaming, and when I heard shots, they immediately stopped screaming. [But I] heard the girls [screaming] for a long time.” Another account recalled the death of Kibbutz Kfar Aza resident Roee Idan, a photojournalist for the Israeli news outlet Ynet, whose three-year-old daughter managed to crawl from under her dead father’s body and seek shelter with a neighbor before she was kidnapped by the terrorists.
David May, Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said, “The UK parliamentary group recognized the importance of establishing the historical record of October 7, much as General Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized the importance of documenting the horrors of the Holocaust. Atrocity deniers seek to exculpate the perpetrators, deny the victims their right to self-defense, justify the actions that they deny happened, and wish for more of it in the future. Though these aims are contradictory, October 7 deniers exist outside reality, in a world of conspiracy theories and disregard for the truth.”
Ben Cohen, FDD Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Director said, “This report is the most comprehensive account so far of the atrocities committed by Hamas and its allies on October 7. It leaves no doubt that Hamas launched a pogrom targeting civilians despite its deceitful insistence that what the world witnessed that day was a military operation. It also leaves no doubt as to the savage nature of the enemy Israel faces and its implacable desire to violently erase Israel from the map.”
British historian Niall Ferguson commented on the publication, saying, “Those who wish to understand the repulsive, pathological nature of anti-Semitism should read the report. Those who doubt the truly evil character of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad must read it.”
Lord Roberts emphasized the dual purpose of the report: “This report will serve as a permanent memorial and enduring resource for governments, educators, and civil society to safeguard the truth against denialism and distortion. This commission was established to chronicle the events of 7 October with clarity, precision, and rigorous fact-checking, to ensure the memory of this atrocity is never erased or rewritten.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, praised the report’s significance, telling Israel National News: “The UK Parliament’s report on the events of 7th October provides crucial fact-based clarity on the horrific war crimes committed by Hamas against innocent civilians. We live in a world where fake news prevails, and the truth is systematically erased through denial and distortion. This comprehensive report is part of the fight against the spread of lies and misinformation.”
The 7 October Parliamentary Commission Report stands as one of the most detailed and damning public records of the Hamas-led attack on Israel. As per the INN report, it serves not only as a factual account but also as a counteroffensive against propaganda, historical revisionism, and moral relativism.
In an era where atrocity denial and misinformation campaigns proliferate, the UK Parliament’s report becomes an essential safeguard of historical integrity, ensuring that the barbaric events of that day are neither forgotten nor distorted.
To read the full report, click here: https://static1.squarespace.
