RAMAT HASHARON, Israel – The story of October 7th continues to unfold as new materials captured inside Gaza and Israeli territory are exposed.
Vehicles, weapons, pictures, and clips, most of them made by Hamas and Islamic Jihad through their GoPros, help to tell the story of that fateful day.
CBN News was given a look at some of the items. One of the most shocking discoveries is how Israel's enemies instilled hatred of the Jews in their youth for years as displayed in children's books.
After the initial attack on the morning of October 7th, civilian mobs – including children and the elderly, joined the terrorists. Attackers came equipped with cameras on their foreheads and chests to document the rampage.
On one of the terrorists killed in Ohakim, soldiers found a guide instructing them to focus on taking videos of combat, killing and capturing prisoners, and explaining how to put it all on social media.
A ten-minute film compilation focuses on the attacks at the Nova Music Festival and the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip.
Some invaders carried UNRWA (United Nations Relief & Works Agency) and other international identifications. At the same time, a handwritten note from one Hamas commander found in Sderot describes their enemy as an incurable disease that can only be dealt with by decapitation and uprooting hearts and livers.
Also, an Arabic language "cheat sheet" instructed Hamas operatives how to say phrases in Hebrew, such as "Take off your clothes."
Many items add to the gruesome story, including kidnapping kits containing a stun gun similar to a taser, zip ties, a tourniquet, and drugs to calm down their victims.
There was a Kalashnikov rifle with a bayonet and machetes to cut off organs, which they did very systematically. Soldiers also found a map of the layout of Kibbutz Be'eri where more than 100 people were killed and 30 were taken hostage.
Ari Gottesman is a business consultant who had an opportunity to see the display.
'I really wish I could say that I was shocked, but unfortunately, I'm not," Gottesman told CBN News. "You know, Islamic fundamentalists, jihadists have always said it's about, you know, the "Saturday people" first and then the "Sunday people."
He added, "So first it's about killing the Jews and then it's about coming for the Christians. Whatever we see that they try to inflict on us, we know that it's going to happen next in the Christian world."
Gottesman was struck by the length of time involved in planning such an attack. The elements were years in the making.
'Which means this wasn't just an overnight response to something," he noted. "No, this is a methodological, planned, ongoing attack with – not a focus on soldiers or military gains of strategic value – but rather, just to sow terror, just to harm innocent people, to target people in their beds, in their homes, their pets.'
Gedaliah Blum, director of the Heartland Initiative Public Diplomacy program, told us that seeing the artifacts and physical evidence made him realize that the battle around Gaza is not just a local conflict.
"This is a global incident that had support from all over the world," Blum stated. "These people who are physically arming the Hamas terrorists, giving them the intelligence they need, and supporting them – whether it be UNRWA, funding Iranian intelligence – this should be seen as it really is. This is a war against the West and Israel is at the front lines."
Blum believes that instead of trying to use this evidence to convince those who deny the attack, Israel should use it to bolster those who love and support Israel.
"We need to stop playing defense and start playing offense, and start winning more," he said. "That's also my big takeaway – that we need to use this in order to strengthen our own resolve and to build better capabilities to strengthen Israel."
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