Hamas Documents Its Own Atrocities: Body Cams, GoPros, and Social Media
Hamas instructed fighters to film the October 7 attack and distributed footage. Body cam recordings, GoPro footage recovered from dead fighters, and footage uploaded to victims' phones document killings, abductions, mutilation, and celebrations — deliberately broadcast by Hamas as a demonstration of strength.
Hamas did not merely commit atrocities on October 7. It deliberately documented and broadcast them — a strategic choice to demonstrate force and terrorize the Israeli population. This documentation has become some of the most important evidentiary record of the attack.
How the Documentation Was Planned
- Hamas fighters were instructed to wear body cameras and GoPros to document the operation.
- Footage was intended for internal Hamas records, propaganda use, and proof-of-operation submission.
- Fighters were also directed to use victims' phones to photograph and video the killings, then upload the footage directly to the victims' own social media accounts — a deliberate act of psychological terror against victims' families.
- Hamas's Telegram channels received real-time footage and published it throughout the day.
What the Footage Documents
Footage recovered from dead Hamas fighters, seized phones, and Hamas's own published materials documents:
- Point-of-view killings of unarmed civilians in their homes and at the festival
- Abductions of hostages — including elderly and children — being driven or walked into Gaza
- Mutilation of bodies and display of corpses
- Celebrations by fighters returning to Gaza with bodies and hostages, met by crowds
News organizations including the New York Times, BBC and CNN have verified and published individual clips; most of the IDF compilation has not been released publicly.
IDF Screenings
The Israeli government compiled footage from body cameras, phone recordings, CCTV systems at kibbutzim, and Hamas's own publications into a 43-minute compilation ("Bearing Witness") shown to journalists, foreign diplomats, lawmakers and other invited audiences. Attendees — including U.S. lawmakers, European parliament members, and UN officials — uniformly described the footage as unambiguous and deeply disturbing.
The purpose: to ensure that eyewitness documentation exists and has been seen by credible international observers, making denial of the scale of the atrocities impossible.