{"id":30022,"date":"2023-11-18T21:29:38","date_gmt":"2023-11-19T05:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30022"},"modified":"2023-11-18T21:29:41","modified_gmt":"2023-11-19T05:29:41","slug":"october-7-testimonies-reveal-israels-military-shelling-israeli-citizens-with-tanks-missiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/11\/18\/october-7-testimonies-reveal-israels-military-shelling-israeli-citizens-with-tanks-missiles\/","title":{"rendered":"October 7 testimonies reveal Israel\u2019s military \u2018shelling\u2019 Israeli citizens with tanks, missiles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/a>MAX BLUMENTHAL<\/a> \u00b7<\/strong> OCTOBER 27, 2023 (thegrayzone.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s military received orders to shell Israeli homes and even their own bases as they were overwhelmed by Hamas militants on October 7. How many Israeli citizens said to have been \u201cburned alive\u201d were actually killed by friendly fire?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Several new testimonies by Israeli witnesses to the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on southern Israel adds to growing evidence that the Israeli military killed its own citizens as they fought to neutralize Palestinian gunmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuval Escapa, a member of the security team for Kibbutz Be\u2019eri, set up a hotline to coordinate between kibbutz residents and the Israeli army. He told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz<\/a> that as desperation began to set in, \u201cthe commanders in the field made difficult decisions \u2013 including shelling houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A separate report<\/a> published in Haaretz noted that the Israeli military was \u201ccompelled to request an aerial strike\u201d against its own facility inside the Erez Crossing to Gaza \u201cin order to repulse the terrorists\u201d who had seized control. That base was filled with Israeli Civil Administration officers and soldiers at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These reports indicate that orders came down from the military\u2019s high command to attack homes and other areas inside Israel, even at the cost of many Israeli lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Israeli woman named Yasmin Porat confirmed in an interview with Israel Radio that the military \u201cundoubtedly\u201d killed numerous Israeli noncombatants during gun battles with Hamas militants on October 7. \u201cThey eliminated everyone, including the hostages,\u201d she stated, referring to Israeli special forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As David Sheen and Ali Abunimah reported<\/a> in Electronic Intifada, Porat described \u201cvery, very heavy crossfire\u201d and Israeli tank shelling, which led to many casualties among Israelis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While being held by the Hamas gunmen, Porat recalled<\/a>, \u201cThey did not abuse us. We were treated very humanely\u2026 No one treated us violently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, \u201cThe objective was to kidnap us to Gaza, not to murder us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Haaretz<\/a>, the army was only able to restore control over Be\u2019eri after admittedly \u201cshelling\u201d the homes of Israelis who had been taken captive. \u201cThe price was terrible: at least 112 Be\u2019eri residents were killed,\u201d the paper chronicled. \u201cOthers were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the shelling in Be\u2019eri was carried out by Israeli tank crews. As a reporter for the Israeli Foreign Ministry-sponsored outlet i24 noted<\/a> during a visit to Be\u2019eri, \u201csmall and quaint homes [were] bombarded or destroyed,\u201d and \u201cwell-maintained lawns [were] ripped up by the tracks of an armored vehicle, perhaps a tank.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apache attack helicopters also figured heavily in the Israeli military\u2019s response on October 7. Pilots have told Israeli media they scrambled to the battlefield without any intelligence, unable to differentiate between Hamas fighters and Israeli noncombatants, and yet determined to \u201cempty the belly\u201d of their war machines. \u201cI find myself in a dilemma as to what to shoot at, because there are so many of them,\u201d one Apache pilot commented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video filmed by uniformed Hamas gunmen<\/a> makes it clear they intentionally shot many Israelis with Kalashnikov rifles on October 7. However, the Israeli government has not been content to rely on verified video evidence. Instead, it continues to push discredited claims of \u201cbeheaded babies\u201d while distributing photographs of \u201cbodies burned beyond recognition\u201d<\/a> to insist that militants sadistically immolated their captives, and even raped some before torching them alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The objective behind Tel Aviv\u2019s atrocity exhibition is clear: to paint Hamas as \u201cworse than ISIS\u201d while cultivating support for the Israeli army\u2019s ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which has left over 7000 dead<\/a>, including at least 2500 children at the time of publication. While hundreds of wounded children in Gaza have been treated for what a surgeon described as \u201cfourth degree burns\u201d<\/a> caused by novel weapons, the Western media\u2019s focus remains trained on Israeli citizens supposedly \u201cburned alive\u201d on October 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the mounting evidence of friendly fire orders handed down by Israeli army commanders strongly suggests that at least some of the most jarring images of charred Israeli corpses, Israeli homes reduced to rubble and burned out hulks of vehicles presented to Western media were, in fact, the handiwork of tank crews and helicopter pilots blanketing Israeli territory with shells, cannon fire and Hellfire missiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, it appears that on October 7, Israel\u2019s military resorted to the same tactics it has employed against civilians in Gaza, driving up the death toll of its own citizens with the indiscriminate use of heavy weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel bombs its own base, nerve center of the Gaza siege<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood at 6 AM on October 7, quickly overwhelming the military bases from which Israel maintain its siege of the Gaza Strip. Chief among the objectives outlined by Hamas and PIJ was the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including as many as 700 children<\/a> passing through the system each year along with 1264 Palestinians currently being held without charges<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2011 swap for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured five years prior and released in exchange for 1027 prisoners, provided clear inspiration for Al-Aqsa Flood. By storming military bases and kibbutzes, the Palestinian militants aimed to capture as many Israeli soldiers and civilians as possible, and bring them back to Gaza alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lighting assault immediately overwhelmed Israel\u2019s Gaza Division. Video recorded from GoPro cameras mounted on the helmets of Palestinian fighters shows Israeli soldiers cut down in rapid succession, many still dressed in underwear and caught off guard. At least 340 active soldiers and intelligence officers were killed on October 7, accounting for close to 50% of confirmed Israeli deaths<\/a>. The casualties included high ranking officers like Col. Jonathan Steinberg<\/a>, the commander of Israel\u2019s Nahal Brigade. (Many first responders and armed Israeli civilians were also killed).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Erez Crossing is the home of a massive military and Coordination of Government Activities in the [Occupied] Territories (COGAT) facility which functions as the nerve center of Israel\u2019s siege on Gaza. When it was overrun<\/a> by Palestinian fighters on October 7 with droves of army bureaucrats inside, the Israeli military flew into a panic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Haaretz<\/a>, the commander of the Gaza Division, Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld, \u201centrenched himself in the division\u2019s subterranean war room together with a handful of male and female soldiers, trying desperately to rescue and organize the sector under attack. Many of the soldiers, most of them not combat personnel, were killed or wounded outside. The division was compelled to request an aerial strike against the [Erez Crossing] base itself in order to repulse the terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Video released by Israel\u2019s COGAT ten days after the battle \u2013 and the Israeli airstrike \u2013 shows severe structural damage to the roof of the Erez Crossing facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Israeli Apache helicopters attack inside Israel: \u201cI find myself in a dilemma as to what to shoot at\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By 10:30 AM, according to an account<\/a> the military gave to the Israeli news outlet Mako, \u201cmost of the [Palestinian] forces from the original invasion wave had already left the area for Gaza.\u201d But with the rapid collapse of the Israeli military\u2019s Gaza Division, looters, common onlookers and low-level guerrillas not necessarily under the command of Hamas flowed freely into Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this point, Israel\u2019s two Apache helicopter squadrons had 8 choppers in the air, \u201cand there was almost no intelligence to help make fateful decisions,\u201d Mako reported. The squadrons did not reach full strength until noon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the wave of infiltrations from Gaza drove chaos on the ground, discombobulated Israeli pilots unleashed a frenzy of missile and machine gun salvos: \u201cThe Apache pilots testify that they fired a huge amount of munitions, emptied the \u2018belly of the helicopter\u2019 in minutes, flew to re-arm and returned to the air, again and again. But it didn\u2019t help and they understand it,\u201d Mako reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Apache helicopters appear to have focused on vehicles streaming back into Gaza from the Nova electronic music festival and nearby kibbutzes, attacked cars  with apparent knowledge that Israeli captives could be inside. They also fired on unarmed people exiting cars or walking on foot through the fields on the periphery of Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/SU_57R\/status\/1711520207284683263?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1711520207284683263%7Ctwgr%5Eb3b9841176ea8dd6ab9414a6108137df9d8712c2%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthegrayzone.com%2F2023%2F10%2F27%2Fisraels-military-shelled-burning-tanks-helicopters%2F<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview<\/a> with Israel\u2019s Mako news outlet, one Apache pilot reflected on the tortuous dilemma of whether to shoot at people and cars returning to Gaza. He knew that many of those vehicles may have contained Israeli captives. But he chose to open fire anyway. \u201cI choose targets like that,\u201d the pilot reflected, \u201cwhere I tell myself that the chance that I am shooting here on hostages as well is low.\u201d However, he admitted that his judgment \u201cwas not 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand that we have to shoot here and quickly,\u201d the commander of the Apache unit, Lt. Col. E., told Mako in a separate report<\/a>. \u201cShooting at people in our territory \u2013 this is something I never thought I would do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lt. Col. A., a reserve pilot in the same unit, described a fog of confusion: \u201cI find myself in a dilemma as to what to shoot at, because there are so many of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report on the Apache squadrons by the Israeli outlet Yedioth Aharanoth<\/a> noted that \u201cthe pilots realized that there was tremendous difficulty in distinguishing within the occupied outposts and settlements who was a terrorist and who was a soldier or civilian\u2026 The rate of fire against the thousands of terrorists was tremendous at first, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow down the attacks and carefully select the targets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A squadron commander explained to Mako how he nearly attacked the home of an Israeli family occupied by Hamas militants, and wound up firing next to it with cannon rounds. \u201cOur forces hadn\u2019t had time to reach this settlement yet,\u201d the pilot recalled, \u201cand I\u2019ve already run out of missiles there, which is the more accurate weaponry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the family inside a fortified bomb shelter, the pilot \u201cdecided to shoot a cannon 30 meters from this house, a very difficult decision. I shoot so that if they are currently there, they will hear the bombs inside the house, that they understand that it is known they are there, and with the hope that they will leave that house. I am also telling you the truth, it crossed my mind that I was shooting at the house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the Israeli helicopter pilots blamed clever Hamas tactics for their inability to distinguish between the armed militants and Israeli non-combatants. \u201cThe Hamas army, it turns out, deliberately made it difficult for the helicopter pilots and the operators of the UAVs,\u201d Yedioth Aharanoth claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Israeli paper, \u201cit became clear that the invading forces were asked in the last briefings to walk slowly into the settlements and outposts or within them, and under no circumstances to run, in order to make the pilots think they were Israelis. This deception worked for a considerable time , until the Apache pilots realized that they had to skip all the restrictions. It was only around 9:00 a.m. that some of them began to spray the terrorists with the cannons on their own, without authorization from superiors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, without any intelligence or ability to distinguish between Palestinian and Israeli, the pilots let loose a fury of cannon and missile fire onto Israeli areas below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of many homes in Kibbutz Be\u2019eri which appears to have been shelled with heavy weapons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s military \u201celiminated everyone, including the hostages,\u201d firing tank shells into kibbutz homes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Photos of the aftermath of the fighting inside kibbutzes like Be\u2019eri \u2013 and of the Israeli bombardment of these communities \u2013 show rubble and charred homes that resemble the aftermath of Israeli tank and artillery attacks inside Gaza. As Tuval Escapa, the security coordinator at Kibbutz Be\u2019eri, told Haaretz, Israeli army commanders had ordered the \u201cshelling [of] houses on their occupants in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yasmin Porat, an attendee of the Nova music festival who fled into Kibbutz Be\u2019eri, told Israeli Radio<\/a> that when Israeli special forces arrived during a hostage standoff, \u201cThey eliminated everyone, including the hostages because there was very, very heavy crossfire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter insane crossfire,\u201d Porat continued, \u201ctwo tank shells were shot into the house. It\u2019s a small kibbutz house, nothing big.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Destroyed homes in Kibbutz Be\u2019eri following the fighting on October 7, which included Israeli tank shelling of residences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A video posted by the Telegram account of Israel\u2019s South Responders<\/a> shows the bodies of Israelis discovered below the rubble of a home destroyed by a powerful explosive blast \u2013 likely a tank shell. The right-wing New York Post ran a report<\/a> on a similar incident about a boy\u2019s body found scorched beneath the ruins of his home in Be\u2019eri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phenomenon of charred corpses whose hands and ankles had been tied, and who were found in groups beneath the rubble of destroyed homes, also raises questions about \u201cfriendly\u201d tank fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yasmin Porat, the hostage who survived a standoff at Be\u2019eri, described how Hamas militants tied her partner\u2019s hands behind his back. After one militant commander surrendered, using her as a human shield to ensure his safety, she saw her partner lying on the ground, still alive. She stated that Israeli security forces \u201cundoubtedly\u201d killed him and the other hostages as they opened fire on the remaining militants inside, including with tank shells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli security forces also opened fire on fleeing Israelis whom they mistook for Hamas gunmen. A resident of Ashkelon named Danielle Rachiel described nearly being killed after escaping from the Nova music festival when it was attacked by militants from Gaza. \u201cAs we reached the roundabout [at a kibbutz], we saw Israeli security forces!\u201d Rachiel recalled. \u201cWe held our heads down [because] we automatically knew they\u2019d be suspicious of us, in a small beat-up car\u2026 from the same direction the terrorists were coming from. Our forces began shooting at us!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen our forces fired at us, our windows shattered,\u201d she continued. It was only when they shouted in Hebrew, \u201cWe\u2019re Israelis!\u201d that the shooting stopped, and they were taken to safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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From Danielle Rachiel\u2019s video testimony on October 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some Israelis were not as lucky as Rachiel. Adi Ohana was shot dead by Israeli police near his home after being mistaken for a Palestinian guerrilla. \u201cAn innocent man was killed in the most negligent way possible,\u201d his niece complained<\/a>. Israeli media is now filling up with reports of the military gunning down<\/a> fellow Israelis, even as they were defending their homes<\/a> from Palestinian gunmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did Israel\u2019s now-disappeared \u201cHamas atrocity\u201d photos depict dead Hamas fighters?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Among the most gruesome videos<\/a> of the aftermath of October 7, also published on the Telegram account of South Responders, shows a car full of charred corpses (below) at the entrance of Kibbutz Be\u2019eri. The Israeli government has portrayed these casualties as Israeli victims of sadistic Hamas violence. However, the melted steel body and collapsed roof of the car, and the comprehensively scorched corpses inside, evidence a direct hit from a Hellfire missile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also possible that the male occupants of the car were Hamas activists who had streamed in after the fences were breached. They may have also been returning to Gaza with Israeli captives inside their car.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Israel\u2019s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, appears to have promoted photos showing dead Hamas fighters during his October 26 tirade<\/a> at the United Nations. Erdan gesticulated angrily at the podium, bellowing that \u201cwe are fighting animals\u201d before whipping out a paper displaying a QR code captionioned, \u201cScan to see Hamas\u2019 atrocities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I scanned the code that day at noon, I found around 8 grisly images of burned bodies and blackened body parts. One showed a pile<\/a> of completely charred male corpses piled into a dumpster. Would Israeli rescuers and medics have disposed of dead Jewish Israelis in such a fashion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Israelis killed on October 7 appear to have been collected in individual body bags and transported to morgues. Meanwhile, numerous videos recorded by Israelis showed them defiling the corpses<\/a> of Hamas gunmen killed by security forces \u2013 stripping them naked, urinating on them, and mutilating their bodies. Throwing their bodies in a dumpster would seem to be a part of the de facto policy of corpse abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just over twelve hours after Ambassador Erdan promoted the supposed Hamas atrocity photos at the UN, the Google Drive file<\/a> contained only one brief video. Among the mysteriously disappeared photos was the image of the dumpster filled with burned bodies. Had it been deleted because it showed Hamas fighters torched by a Hellfire missile, and not Israelis<\/a> \u201cburned to death\u201d by Hamas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Israeli ambassador Gilad Erdan at the UN, October 26. The QR code he displayed currently leads to a 404 notice.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Destruction reminiscent of Israeli attacks on Gaza<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Some rescuers who arrived at sites of carnage in southern Israel after October 7 said they had never seen such destruction. For those who have borne witness to Israel\u2019s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, however, the images of bombed-out homes and burned cars should have been familiar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While reporting on Israel\u2019s 51 day-long assault on Gaza in 2014, I came across a destroyed vehicle in central Gaza City belonging to a young taxi driver named Fadel Alawan who had been assassinated by an Israeli drone after he unwittingly dropped a wounded Hamas fighter off at a nearby hospital. Inside the car, the remains of Alawan\u2019s sandal could still be seen melted into the gas pedal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the afternoon of October 7, placid settlements and desert roads across southern Israel were charred and lined with bombed-out cars that looked much like Alawan\u2019s. Were the lightly-armed Hamas fighters actually capable of exacting destruction on such a comprehensive scale?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fadel Alawah drove a wounded man to a hospital, not knowing he was a fighter. Here's what a drone did to his car: pic.twitter.com\/84GTpgPxSo<\/a><\/p>— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) August 16, 2014<\/a><\/blockquote>