Destruction at Kibbutz Nir Oz. Photo by Oren Cohen
By Joshua Marks
A landmark 318-page report from the United Kingdom, published on Wednesday, provides a detailed account of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 invasion of southern Israel, aiming to establish an irrefutable historical record amid growing denial of the atrocities.
According to the report, chaired by Lord Andrew Roberts and compiled by the UK-Israel All-Party Parliamentary Group, 7,000 Hamas terrorists launched coordinated assaults across 55 locations, killing nearly 1,200 people, 73% of whom were civilians. The youngest victim, 14-hour-old Naama Abu Rashed, a Bedouin Israeli, was shot in her mother’s womb, while the oldest, 92-year-old Holocaust survivor Moshe Ridler, was murdered in his safe room with a rocket-propelled grenade.
Among the 1,182 people killed, 18 were British citizens; those murdered or kidnapped came from 44 different countries. Most were Jewish Israelis, but Israeli Arabs and Bedouins were also targeted without mercy.
The report confirms widespread sexual violence, including rape, gang rape and sexualized torture, backed by survivor testimonies and open-source evidence.
The largest group of victims was young adults aged 18-30, primarily due to the attack on the Nova music festival, where 375 people were killed.
Victims were killed by gunfire, fire, asphyxiation and explosions. The report also details widespread desecration of corpses, including mutilation, beheadings and the boobytrapping of bodies. In some instances, bodies were taken back to Gaza.
“There have already been attempts to deny these atrocities,” said Lord Roberts, calling the report “incontrovertible proof to ensure the truth is preserved.”
The report has been praised as a vital resource to counter misinformation and uphold historical accountability. British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore described it as an “important and essential record, chronicle, and investigation of one of the most atrocious crimes of terrorist barbarity in modern history.”
Source: JNS
